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Premise Media, the producers of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, have filed suit in Texas asking for a “declaratory judgment that there is no copyright or other infringement” in the movie, opening tomorrow nationwide.
The suit responds to a communication from lawyers for XVIVO, creators of scientific animations, who allege that animations in the movie were remarkably like those in Cellular Visions: The Inner Life of a Cell.
Expelled’s producers have apparently removed the offending animation from the final cut of the flick, but filed the civil suit anyway, demanding that XVIVO pay Premise Media’s attorney fees.
SA Smith, who blogs at ERV, has obtained a copy of the 16-page suit and picks it apart in detail. It’s a nuisance suit, to keep XVIVO tied up in court and to hamstring it financially.
Premise Media et alia in a press release also claims XVIVO’s legal challenge (note it was a letter, not a lawsuit) is yet another effort to suppress free speech.
Whatever. XVIVO has not demanded the film be pulled from the theaters, just that its intellectual property rights be respected. The XVIVO communication says nothing about the message or validity of the film.
One allegation in the press release is a tiny bit true. There is a movement in the blogosphere to get an anti-Expelled site, www.expelledexposed.com, rated higher on search engine results for the keyword, “Expelled.” Whether that equates to suppressing the movie is an exaggeration.
