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E-mailA California district judge has ruled against Universal Music Group, the largest record company in the world, in a copyright case involving a mother who made a short video of her toddler bouncing along to the Prince song "Let's Go Crazy," and posted it on YouTube. Prince is a Universal artist.
In 2007, after Stephanie Lenz uploaded the clip of her child to the popular video-sharing site, Universal sent a letter demanding that it be taken down and YouTube complied. When Lenz was notified, she responded by asking that the video be reposted, saying that her use of the song constituted fair use.Lenz then joined forces with Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit organization advocating digital rights, and filed a case asking a judge to declare that her home video, was, in fact, an instance of fair use. Lenz also sought injunctive relief and damages because Universal had made an improper claim of copyright infringement.
Universal fought back with affirmative defenses, arguing that Lenz had bad faith and unclean hands in pursuing damages.
The decision by the court, which was issued last Thursday, is highly technical. The damage claims are scrutinized under a statutory code that deals with liability when misrepresentations are made about infringing works online.
According to Reuters, the case is important because it raises the question of whether a media company can be held liable for issuing a takedown notice without a full consideration of fair use.
Based on a preliminary reading of the decision, it appears that Lenz can recover legal fees incurred with fighting the takedown. If, however, she wants to recover fees associated with pursuing Universal for damages in subsequent litigation, Lenz will likely need to show that the label knowingly misrepresented its initial claim of infringement.
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