A federal appellate court in Atlanta has affirmed a May ruling that lifted a preliminary injunction against the publication of Alice Randall’s The Wind Done Gone by Houghton Mifflin. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled October 11 that SunTrust, which oversees the estate of author Margaret Mitchell, could sue for monetary damages if the copyright of the 1936 Gone with the Wind had been violated. However, they expressed doubt that a successful case could be made.
The opinion read in part, “We reject the district court’s conclusion that SunTrust has established its likelihood of success on the merits.”
“The work is unequivocally a parody, in the words of the court,” Joseph Beck, an attorney representing Houghton Mifflin, said in the October 12 New York Times. “The court also reaffirmed that an injunction was never the correct remedy.”
Randall’s book has been on sale since June, after the ban was overturned.
Posted October 22, 2001.