| Court: | 11th Circuit |
| Facts: | Alice Randall writes The Wind Done Gone, incorporating characters, plot, and scenes from Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind. |
| Posture: | Probably an appeal, but no posture info given. |
| Issue: | Should The Wind Done Gone be enjoined from publication? |
| Holding: | No, this is fair use. |
| Rule: | The Copyright Act includes a provision for fair use. |
| Reasoning: | Copyright is enshrined in the US Constitution (Article 1, Sect. 8, Clause 8). Copyright doesn't immunize a work from criticism; the idea of fair use is there to avoid private censorship, just as 1A protects against government censorship. The dispositive quesion is the extent to which a critic uses borrowed content for a new purpose, as opposed to just lifting it wholesale. The Wind Done Gone is not a mere reproduction. |
| Dicta: | |