5/10/02 Gone With the Wind case settled
The estate of Margaret Mitchell decided yesterday to settle its legal case against Houghton Mifflin, the company that published Alice Randall's The Wind Done Gone. Randall's novel is a similar story and is set on the same Civil War-era plantation as Mitchell's bestseller, but tells the tale from the perspective of a slave. The terms of the legal agreement were not made public, but according to the New York Times, Houghton Mifflin will make a donation to Morehouse College at the request of Mitchell Trusts. In addition, the book will continue to be published with a label stating "unauthorized parody." Houghton Mifflin says the settlement will not affect film rights or future editions of the book. The book has spurred debate about the First Amendment rights of parodies and protection of intellectual property. The case drew attention last May, when an Atlanta Federal appeals court overturned a lower court's attempt to block the book's publication. Since then the book has sold 150,000 hardcover copies and 60,000 paperback copies.
From Book Magazine: http://www.bookmagazine.com/news/may02news.shtml#wind
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