Makers of the movie "Expelled" survived a legal challenge Monday, confirming the documentary would not be kicked out of theaters.

Yoko Ono sued the filmmakers for using a 15 second excerpt of the famous Beatles' song "Imagine," written by her late husband John Lennon.

But U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein ruled that the song could be borrowed under the "fair use doctrine."

"That doctrine provides that the fair use of a copyrighted work for the purposes of criticism and commentary is not an infringement of copyright," the judge wrote in his decision in Manhattan federal court.

Lawyers representing Premise Media Corp., Rampant Films and Rocky Mountain Pictures Inc. said they were pleased with the decision.

"There were important free-speech issues here - they were literally asking the judge to censor the film," lawyer Anthony Falzone said.

The "Expelled" documentary presents intelligent design or the theory that the universe is too complex to be explained by evolution alone.

It also highlights cases where scientists lost their jobs for challenging the theory of evolution.

Source: The Associated Press