For a song that sounds like the call-waiting music you’d hear if you were phoning Satan, John Lennon’s Imagine is still bewilderingly controversial.
Recently a 15-second clip of Imagine was used in a weird creationist documentary by the man who played the teacher in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and it caused Yoko Ono to hit the roof. Yoko sued the makers of the movie for copyright infringement, but it looks like she’s been unsuccessful.
Yoko Ono has now dropped the lawsuit against the movie, presumably because the use of Imagine was covered under ‘fair use’ rules. So it looks like it’s one-nil to the creationists! You see, they’re always right! Apart from, you know, all their basic religious tenants and stuff! But still! Party time!
There’s just something about Imagine by John Lennon that has caused it to remain in the public consciousness for so long. Maybe it’s the fact that the lyrics seem to have been copied from a motivational fridge magnet, or the way that the piano sounds like it’s being played by a depressed man trying to gently headbutt himself into unconsciousness. We just don’t know.
But still, the song’s power to invoke a furore is still there – not so long ago a school banned Imagine in case the students all decided to gang up and, um, imagine they didn’t have any stuff. Or something. And now Imagine is back in the news, and it’s all the fault of the sodding creationists.
In a documentary called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed from earlier this year – in which the actor Ben Stein asks why scientists aren’t allowed to believe that God magicked everything together a couple of hundred years ago anymore – a 15-second clip of Imagine was used.
This made Yoko Ono flip out. She hit Premise Media – the makers of the movie – with a copyright infringement lawsuit as hard as she could, either because she didn’t agree with the principles of the film the song was used in or because someone didn’t offer her a wheelbarrow full of cash for a song that she didn’t even write anyway first. Again, we just don’t know.
But, whatever the reason, Yoko Ono has decided to drop the lawsuit anyway, probably in the spirit of peace or something. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Executives at Premise Media Corp. acknowledged all along that they didn’t seek permission to use the song. But they argued that under “fair use” rules, they didn’t need to, since the film used only a brief portion of the song, to comment on. Anthony Falzone, a Stanford law professor who represents Premise, said he welcomed the plaintiffs’ decision to drop their lawsuits.
Sadly, though, this decision has come slightly to late for Expelled, because Premise were forced to drop Imagine from the DVD version in case the lawsuit went Yoko Ono’s way. So anyone buying a copy of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed won’t hear Imagine by John Lennon any more. It’s been replaced by the next-best alternative – Fuck You Like An Animal by W.A.S.P.
Actually, Premise may as well have left Imagine in, because nobody’s going to actually buy Expelled on DVD anyway – evolutionists will find the subject matter too offensive to invest in, and creationists all believe that using money to buy things is essentially witchcraft, a crime punishable by drowning.
J Bollocks says
Losers! Creationists have all the fun.
Here are some quotes from the Project Pterosaur website (http://www.objectiveministries.org/creation/projectpterosaur.html):
“The goal of Project Pterosaur is to mount an expedition to locate and bring back to the United States living specimens of pterosaurs or their fertile eggs, which will be displayed in a Pterosaur Rookery”
“Kids love pterosaurs! Once Project Pterosaur is complete, children’s eyes will be opened to the wonder of Creation.”
“Once we secure specimens and bring them back, we will need a place to raise and display them… we have extensive plans, funding, and land in the lot adjacent to Fellowship University’s parking structure.”
Why do the Creationists get to have the fun. Boring old evolutionists should get their acts together.
But take care…
“If you find an Atheist in your neighborhood,
TELL A PARENT OR PASTOR RIGHT AWAY! Atheists are often very grumpy and bitter”
Finally, HS staff take note: “Mr. Gruff is a sad Atheist goat who only finds solace in coffee. He’s become as bitter as his favorite drink.”
Julian Mentat says
From Wiki:
“The film attempts to associate Hitler’s ambitions of a master race and the holocaust to Darwinian ideas of survival of the fittest”
Well, of course they were associated. The Nazis were very glad to quote evolutionary concepts. But so what? Evolution theory doesn’t actually TELL you to kill people. Scientific theories don’t tell anybody to do anything. They contain no morals. We can USE them to make judgements and decide morals, but that’s our responsibility.
Mr. Stein’s argument is called Guilt By Association (e.g. “The Nazis made phone calls, therefore telephones are evil”). It works for idiots.