Back in October, the William Faulkner estate decided to file a copyright infringement against Sony, claiming that Woody Allen did not have permission to quote one of the famous writer’s novels in his 2011 box office hit Midnight In Paris. On Thursday, a Mississippi judge threw out the case, but was at least thankful to all those involved for not asking him to compare a Faulkner novel to Sharknado.

The estate claimed that Allen, who won an Oscar for the script, didn’t get permission to quote Faulkner’s Requiem for a Nun. The suit was filed in a federal court in Mississippi. In the film, Owen Wilson’s character says, “The past is not dead. Actually, it’s not even past. You know who said that? Faulkner. And he was right. And I met him, too. I ran into him at a dinner party.”

Sony responded with a statement, calling the suit “frivolous” and that it was “fair use.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, U.S. District Judge Michael Mills agreed with Sony. He started his 17-page ruling by thanking Sony and the Faulkner estate for not having him compare The Sound and the Fury to Sharknado. In all seriousness though, he ruled that it was “fair use,” since it is just a single line used in a comedy film.

The Faulkner estate had argued that the quote was an essential part of Requiem and therefore, credit should have been given. Mills disagreed, since it’s only nine words out of a lengthy novel. “...It should go without saying that the quote at issue is of miniscule quantitative importance to the work as a whole. Thus, the court considers both the qualitative and quantitative analyses to tip in favor of fair use,” Mills wrote.

He also didn’t agree that the quote would damage Requiem at all, noting that if it had any effect, it would be positive. “The film indeed helped the plaintiff and the market value of Requiem if it had any effect at all.”

Mills also pointed out that allusion is not the same as affiliation, so just having Allen allude to a quote isn’t going to make someone assume that the Faulkner estate was associated with the project.

So, Sony won this round. And you can say that Sharknado did too, since it’s now part of a court record.

image: Amazon