Universal: “Fair use” is still infringing

arstechnica: Stephanie Lenz’s YouTube video of her tot dancing to an old Prince song was pulled down at the request of Universal last year after the music label said that the clip infringed on its copyright. Not content with simply having Universal retract its claim, Lenz and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are out to put the squeeze on Universal for issuing a bad-faith DMCA takedown. But Universal told a judge this week that, even though the clip may in fact be “fair use,” it was still “infringement” and therefore the initial takedown notice was made in good faith.

July 22, 2008 by Uncategorized 1

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1 Response

  1. GrayArcadian says:
    July 22, 2008 at 5:01 pm

    Bootleggers
    The more I think about copyright and “fair use,” these days, the more I start wondering if we’re all back in the 1920’s. Content has become the new hooch. Illegal, immoral, fattening and so culturally embedded in day to day life and human experience you wonder about the wisdom and ethics of banning it. We live in a world now where almost all of our shared cultural stories and folk music are owned by someone. Generally it’s someone like Universal or Viacom who didn’t make the stuff in the first place, is way over-charging for it, and has no sense of humor.

    I try to respect copyright like the ALA tells me to, but how can I respect a company that goes after a little kid being a little kid who just happened to be on camera? (And before anyone starts, YouTube is not supposed to be the cable company. It’s supposed to be the way you share and store videos outside of your own computer.)

    Reply

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