‘Dancing Baby’ Wins Copyright Case by Laura Wagner.
From the post:
A baby bobs up and down in a kitchen, as a Prince song plays in the background. His mother laughs in the background and his older sister zooms in and out of the frame.
This innocuous 29-second home video clip was posted to YouTube in 2007 and sparked a long legal proceeding on copyright and fair use law.
In the case, Lenz v. Universal — which has gained notoriety as the “dancing baby” lawsuit — Universal Music Group sent YouTube a warning to take the video down, claiming copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Then, Stephanie Lenz, poster of the video and mother of the baby, represented by Electronic Frontier Foundation, sued Universal for wrongly targeting lawful fair use.
Today, eight years later, a federal appeals court has sided with the dancing baby.
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If you need more legal background on the issues, consider the EFF page on Lenz v. Universal (links to original court documents), or the Digital Media Law page, Universal Music v. Lenz.
The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) should be amended to presume fair use unless and until the complaining party convince a court that someone else is profiting from the use of their property. No profit, no foul. No more non-judicial demand for take downs of any content.