Sun Trust Bank vs. Houghton Mifflin Company

Houghton Mifflin had scheduled the publication of Alice Randall's story, entitled "The Wind Done Gone," in June last year when the lawyers of Margaret Mitchell's estate - represented by Sun Trust Bank -- sought for and obtained a preliminary injunction in April, stopping its publication (Associated Press 2001). Margaret Mitchell was the author of the classic novel and very famous movie, "Gone with the Wind," in 1939 and Alice Randall wrote "The Wind Done Gone" in 2001. The estate's lawyers held that Randall violated the Copyright Law by plagiarizing Mitchell's novel and that it was not simply a case of free speech, as claimed by Randall.

In their court action, the lawyers of the Mitchell estate, implored the estate's exclusive right to the publication of the novel:

without the threat of an injunction to derail unauthorized derivative works of fiction, pirates will be...
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