Imagine

I remember where I was when John Lennon was shot. I was lying in bed, listening to Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother on 8-track. My father thought I was sleeping, so he didn't tell me right away, and it was only when I sobered up a bit (ah, to be seventeen in 1980!), and turned on the radio that I figured out what happened. CHUM-FM and Q-107 were pretty decent stations then, and you could usually depend on them not to play treacle like "Imagine" repeatedly.

Almost 28 years later, and "Imagine" is back in the news again, and this time it's a double whammy. First comes David Archuleta, who sang it and lost American Idol by a whopping 12 million votes. Well , gosh, golly gee, and jeepers! The Mormon milksop may have thrilled his eleven-year-old audience with a bowdlerized version of the song, but singing "Imagine" with the parts about no Heaven and no countries expurgated really seems to miss the point. But apparently he's not the only Bible thumper to abuse the song.

The subtitle of Expelled really sums up the film--No Intelligence Allowed. Here is yet another attempt by fundie yahoos to push their Creationist agenda on the American education system, this time with Ferris Bueller's teacher as their spokesperson. The problem is, as I learned from Wikinews, that the God Squad behind this film has incorporated about 20 to 30 seconds of the song "Imagine" into the film, citing "fair use" as their defense. I hear that Yoko, now in her mid-seventies, isn't very happy about it.

For me, this case poses an interesting dilemma. One the one hand, in the Wikiworld, this could be a classic example of fair use--a fragment of a song used to illustrate a point. To quote the excellent Wikinews article: "Judge Richard Lowe ... asked ... why the film's producers did not read the lyrics to the song or flash the lyrics on the screen." In other words, there are alternatives, perhaps not as exciting as a fragment of the song, but viable alternatives nonetheless. I wonder if this statement by the judge will have any implications on the extensive abuse of fair use on Wikipedia--for instance, just the other day I found the full version of a copyrighted song in the Bianca Ryan article (someone has since cleaned it up).

But fair use has a place, when used wisely and in moderation. One could, perhaps, argue that Expelled is a documentary, and the John Lennon song is used only in part to illustrate a point. As such, perhaps, the producers' claims should be defended. On the other hand, from a moral perspective, a film that attacks science and promotes "intelligent" design is hardly something I would like to defend.

So that's the problem: defend fair use by defending "intelligent" design, or let the ongoing law suit prevent distribution of the film. What do you think?