Rich Fiscus
25 Jul 2007 7:10
Yesterday the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit against Universal Music Publishing Group, asking a federal court to protect the fair use and free speech rights of a mother who posted a short video of her toddler son dancing to a Prince song on the Internet.
In February Stephanie Lenz uploaded a 29 second clip of her son bouncing around to the song "Let's Go Crazy," which is heard playing in the background. Last month YouTube informed Lenz that it had removed the video from its website after Universal claimed that the recording infringed a copyright controlled by the music company.
The lawsuit asks for a declaratory judgment that Lenz's home video does not infringe any Universal copyright, as well as damages and injunctive relief restraining Universal from bringing further copyright claims in connection with the video.
"Universal's takedown notice doesn't even pass the laugh test," said EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry. "Copyright holders should be held accountable when they undermine non-infringing, fair uses like this video."
The lawsuit asks for a declaratory judgment that Lenz's home video does not infringe any Universal copyright, as well as damages and injunctive relief restraining Universal from bringing further copyright claims in connection with the video.
It's hard to imagine a more obvious example of fair use, or a more blatant abuse of the DMCA's take-down clause. This is the courts' chance to send a clear message to copyright holders that this sort of abusive litigation won't be tolerated.
Given the RIAA's recent losses when someone is willing and able to spend the money to stand up to them, Universal should be worried about this case. It seems that judges may be getting tired of the entertainment industry making up their own laws to protect profits rather than rights.
Source: EFF