The producers of “Expelled” are making a pre-emptive strike against the copyright owners of the animation which, many believe, was essentially copied for unauthorized use in the Ben Stein “documentary.” Forbes provides this copy of the press release issued by Premise Media (which is naturally written from the producer’s point of view).
EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed Producers File Lawsuit and Expose Other Efforts to Suppress Free Speech . It begins thusly:
Premise Media is ready to challenge the unfounded copyright infringement claims asserted recently by representatives of XVIVO, LLC concerning original animation Premise Media created for the documentary, EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed.
On April 14, 2008, Premise Media filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas seeking declaratory judgment that there is no copyright or other infringement. Premise Media also seeks its attorneys’ fees in responding to the XVIVO claims.
The suit results from unfounded claims recently made by representatives of XVIVO. These claims have received wide distribution as part of an ongoing campaign attempting to discredit the film and its producers.
The Sensuous Curmudgeon 