Tech & Biz

Mother sues Universal Music

by Jason Sanders | August 21, 2008 at 02:48 pm

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In 2007, Stephanie Lenz made a short video of her son dancing to a song by Prince, which was taken down. Due to the DMCA, copyright holders have been able to order takedowns of YouTube videos without having to worry about the implications. Stephanie sued Universal Music citing 'fair use' and has gained an important step in winning her case. On August 20, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled that songs cannot be removed without examining the legality of the "excerpt".

But Fogel noted Wednesday that the law defines a fair-use copy as legal and said the copyright holder, who has to examine the Web posting to make sure it's an unauthorized duplicate, must also consider whether the excerpt was too innocuous to matter commercially.

In most cases, the judge said, that inquiry "will not be so complicated as to jeopardize a copyright owner's ability to respond rapidly to potential infringements." The law is intended "to prevent the abuse of takedown notices," he said.

The judge, however, had "'considerable doubt' that Lenz can prove the company acted in bad faith."

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