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Issue 83, Fall 2001

The Wind Done Gone: The 11th Circuit found that Alice Randall’s novel, re-telling Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind from the slaves’ point of view, is a parody, an important element of Randall’s “fair use” defense to copyright infringement claims. The court remanded for fact-finding on other elements of the defense. The decision provides a useful review of copyright law and history. An injunction against publication of Randall’s book was lifted by the appeals court last spring. (See CN 82).

Corpus Christi: The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to overrule a lower court decision allowing a production of Terrence McNally’s play, Corpus Christi, at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. The court did not find a constitutional violation even though the play offends the religious beliefs of some community members.