The ‘Dancing Baby’ Lawsuit Will Shape Future of Fair Use https://tinyurl.com/27eue2xSat Oct 30 03:58:25 via NetNewsWire for iPad
Mike Orren
mikeorren
Universal, which administers the copyrights to Prince’s songs, claims that the “dancing baby” video violated copyright law because of the Prince background music. [Stephanie] Lenz, after initially taking down the video, later put it back up on YouTube and called the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, which promptly took her case pro bono and filed a countersuit against Universal in a San Jose federal court. Last week, lawyers from EFF and Universal filed opposing briefs arguing for summary judgment. A decision on those motions could come in a matter of months, and will likely decide the case.
However it turns out, the case will help define the limits of “fair use” in the digital age. Fair use is the doctrine that allows the use of copyrighted material if it’s used for criticism, commentary, or transformed in a meaningful way. If copyright owners have to give greater consideration to fair use before sending takedown notices, it could make it more difficult for them to police sites like YouTube; advocacy groups like EFF say that’s a small price to pay for defending fair-use rights.
Related articles
- The ‘Dancing Baby’ Lawsuit Will Shape Future of Fair Use (paidcontent.org)
- Universal Claiming Dancing Baby Video Not An Obvious Case Of Fair Use (techdirt.com)
- Mom Asks Court to Declare Universal Violated Law in “Dancing Baby” Case (eff.org)
- Big Brother Is Watching YouTube: How My Dancing Kid Joined the Copyright Wars (dailyfinance.com)
- The $105 Fix That Could Protect You From Copyright Troll Lawsuits (wired.com)
- Be like YouTube & Wired - protect your website from lawsuits (cloudspace.com)
