Banned From YouTube: The Video That Universal Music Doesn’t Want You To See
Jul 25th, 2007 | By James Lewin | Category: GeneralThe Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed suit against Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), asking a federal court to protect the fair use and free speech rights of a mother who posted a short video of her toddler son dancing to a Prince song on the Internet.
Stephanie Lenz’s 29-second recording shows her son bouncing along to His Royal Purple Badness Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy, which is heard playing in the background of the video. Lenz uploaded the home video to YouTube in February to share it with her family and friends.
Last month, YouTube informed Lenz that it had removed the video from its site in response to a request from Universal that claimed that the recording infringed a copyright controlled by the music company. Under federal copyright law, a mere allegation of copyright infringement can result in the removal of content from the Internet.
“I was really surprised and angry when I learned my video was removed,” said Lenz. “Universal should not be using legal threats to try to prevent people from sharing home videos of their kids with family and friends.”
“Universal’s takedown notice doesn’t even pass the laugh test,” said EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry. “Copyright holders should be held accountable when they undermine non-infringing, fair uses like this video.”
Here’s the video that Universal doesn’t want you to see:
“Copyright abuse can shut down online artists, political analysts, or — as in this case — ordinary families who simply want to share snippets of their day-to-day lives,” said EFF Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. “Universal must stop making groundless infringement claims that trample on fair use and free speech.”
The lawsuit asks for a declaratory judgment that Lenz’s home video does not infringe any Universal copyright, as well as damages and injunctive relief restraining Universal from bringing further copyright claims in connection with the video.
This lawsuit is part of EFF’s ongoing work to protect online free speech in the face of bogus copyright claims. EFF is currently working with Stanford’s Fair Use Project to develop a set of “best practices” for proper takedowns under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
I actually think Universal is in the right here.
I mean, I could first download a plugin allowing me to download the 29 second video from YouTube, then run the video through Sony Vegas and extract the audio. At which point I would pipe in my clip to Adobe Audition, which costs way too much money.
Then, through hours and hours of post-production, filters, noise reduction, and audio enhancements, I COULD have an ALMOST INTELLIGIBLE 29 second clip of Let’s Go Crazy to put on my ipod.
I’m sure millions of people do this EVERY DAY!
(note the sarcasm.)
I agree, Jason. But I wouldn’t go through that much work. I’d just spend a fews hours to search out your 29 second clip of Prince on a P2P site after you’ve already done the work (thanks for all that effort, BTW); or I might even pay a Chinese or Russian bootlegger 2¬¢ for that scratchy copy, thus depriving Universal and Prince the royalty money they would have earned on 29 seconds of music. That’ll show The Man!
Eric
[…] Banned From YouTube: The Video That Universal Music Doesn‚Äôt Want You To See “The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed suit against Universal Music Publishing Group, asking a federal court to protect the fair use and free speech rights of a mother who posted a short video of her toddler son dancing to a Prince son (tags: DMCA video YouTube lawsuit copyright fair-use) […]
What if EVERYBODY dl’d a 29 second clip? And what if EVERY 29 second clip was different? They could all be strung together on a Samsung MJ-23 MegaJoiner that is made just to join clips no longer than 30 seconds.
Now you’ve got every clip joined together, all the music on the internet, all the music ion the world!!
And all because you did not prevent that 1st 29 second clip, that first little infringement
Your arguments for banning this are ridiculous, I can just turn on any radio station and copy the clip… digital or not.
Who the hell would bother taping together 29 seconds of it from different clips.