Mum sues Universal over YouTube video
p2pnet news | freedom:- Stephanie Lenz’s 29-second video shows her son bouncing along to the Prince song ‘Let’s Go Crazy playing in the background.
Nice.
She wanted to share it with other folks around the world so she uploaded it to YouTube, just like thousands of other proud parents have done.
What happened? Big 4 organised music cartel member Vivendi Universal claimed the recording infringed a copyright.
And you can barely hear the song.
But no matter because as the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) points out, under US federal copyright law, "a mere allegation of copyright infringement can result in the removal of content from the Internet".
Now the EFF is supporting the home-movie mum in a free-speech lawsuit it filed today against Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG).
"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," says EFF staff lawyer 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 doesn’t infringe any Universal copyright, as well as damages and injunctive relief restraining Universal from bringing further copyright claims in connection with the video.
The video is back online. For now.
Also See:
EFF – Mom Sues Universal Music for DMCA Abuse, July 24, 2007
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