Injunction Done Gone; HM Rushes 'WDG' to Press

After less than an hour of argument, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the injunction against publication of The Wind Done Gone, Alice Randall's controversial parody of Margaret Mitchell's Civil War classic, Gone with the Wind.

Martin Garbus, lawyer for the Mitchell estate, told PW that they will go immediately to the 11th circuit and request an en banc rehearing, in which all 12 judges of the circuit would rule on the case. "We will ask the court to reconsider its ruling," Garbus said.

Tom Selz, another lawyer to the Mitchell estate, told PW that "the court's decision is clearly erroneous and represents a profound misunderstanding of copyright law."

Calling the lower court's injunction "an abuse of discretion" and "an unlawful prior restraint" of the First Amendment, the court issued the ruling orally from the bench after a brief conference. The book, which tells the story of Gone with the Wind from a slave's perspective, was scheduled to be published in June by Houghton Mifflin. In April, the district court's Judge Charles Pannell ruled that the book infringed on the Mitchell copyright and issued a preliminary injunction blocking the book's publication.

Wendy Strothman, executive v-p of trade and reference at HM, called the court's decision "an absolute victory for both the First Amendment and for the fair-use doctrine, both crucial to American culture and freedom of expression." She told PW that HM expects the book to ship June 8; the first printing is 38,000 copies and the house is already going back to press for another 50,000.

"I am delighted that the American people will now be able to read my book," Randall said.