Suntrust Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co.
Suntrust Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co., 268 F.3d 1257 (11th Cir. 2001),[1] was a case decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit against the owner of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind, vacating an injunction prohibiting the publisher of Alice Randall's 2001 parody, The Wind Done Gone, from distributing the book.
| Suntrust Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co. | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Court | United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit |
| Full case name | Suntrust Bank, as Trustee of the Stephen Mitchell trusts f.b.o. Eugene Muse Mitchell and Joseph Reynolds Mitchell v. Houghton Mifflin Company |
| Decided | 10 October 2001 |
| Citation(s) | 268 F.3d 1257 |
| Case history | |
| Prior action(s) | 136 F.Supp.2d 1357 |
| Court membership | |
| Judge(s) sitting | Birch, Marcus, Wood (of the 7th Cir., sitting by designation) |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Birch, joined by a unanimous court |
| Concurrence | Marcus |
The Court of Appeals recognized copyright in several characters from Gone with the Wind and found that The Wind Done Gone had "appropriate[d] numerous characters, settings, and plot twists". However, the court decided that this appropriation was protected under the doctrine of fair use.[1]
This case arguably stands for the principle that the creation and publication of a carefully written parody novel in the United States counts as fair use. In permitting parody without permission, the decision followed the 1994 United States Supreme Court decision in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. which ruled that 2 Live Crew's unlicensed use of the bass line from Roy Orbison's song "Oh, Pretty Woman" could constitute fair use even though the work was a commercial use, and extended that principle from songs to novels. It is binding precedent in the Eleventh Circuit.
Mitchell's estate chose to drop the suit after publisher Houghton agreed to make a donation to Morehouse College.[2]
References
- Suntrust Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co., 268 F.3d 1257 (11th Cir. 2001).
- "Mitchell Estate Settles Gone With the Wind Suit," The New York Times May 10, 2002; Settlement reached over Wind Done Gone, The Associated Press, May 10, 2002.
External links
- Text of Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin Co., 268 F.3d 1257 (11th Cir. 2001) is available from: Justia OpenJurist Google Scholar
- Locating Copyright Within the First Amendment Skein by N. W. Netanel 54 Stanford Law Review 101