YouTube "Fair Use" court battle

7 replies
A woman posted a video of her toddler dancing to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" on YouTube. After racking up hits, YouTube removed the video after a copyright claim by Universal Music.

The woman is now suing Universal Music claiming "fair use" of the song in her video.

"The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said copyright holders can't demand videos and other content that uses their material be taken down without determining whether they constitute "fair use." It's the first circuit court to issue such a ruling, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the civil liberties group that represented Lenz in her lawsuit."

This is a significant case if the courts decide that using music in a homemade video posted on YouiTube is "fair use" even though those videos make money with YouTube's revenue sharing.

The video has since been restored to YouTube and has racked up over 1 million hits.

YouTube video of baby dancing to Prince track sparks trial over copyright - Arts & Entertainment - CBC News
#battle #court #fair use #youtube
  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    Isn't the 9th Circuit the court that will allow almost anything? I read that decisions made by 9th circuit were overturned 80% of the time by Supreme Court.

    It has the reputation of "most reversed" court in the country - at least that's what I've read about it.

    Some common sense would be good. "Fair use" was designed for use by educational institutions and publications. Will be interesting to see if that concept is expanded or not. I think in the end the video will be taken down. By then everyone will have forgotten about it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
    determining whether they constitute "fair use."
    Unfortunately, the only way to get a definitive answer on whether a particular use is a fair use is to have it resolved in federal court.

    The four factors judges consider are:

    the purpose and character of your use
    the nature of the copyrighted work
    the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and
    the effect of the use upon the potential market.
    Measuring Fair Use: The Four Factors - Copyright Overview by Rich Stim - Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center

    Seems it will spark a slew of cases if they are decided case-by-case.

    When I searched for "fair use" the dancing baby dominated the results.
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  • Profile picture of the author Vincent Denali
    The revenues generated should just be split between her and Universal Music. Both win. Instead of fighting it, record labels and publishers should just get on board and find ways to make it work. I'm sure they have processes in place for licensing, but they should make it easy for video creators that just create short videos for youtube.
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  • Profile picture of the author onSubie
    Yes, the court is not making a determination of whether that particular video is "fair use" but they are saying YouTube doesn't have to remove videos until the copyright holder has determined whether fair use would apply.

    YouTube already allows copyright material and much of it stays up because the copyright holder does not make a request to YouTube to take down the video.

    Many full-length copyright films and videos are up on YouTube simply because YouTube has not received a formal request to take them down.

    Following a UFC MMA Pay-Per-View, all the action shows up on YouTube. You can watch the full fight or selected highlights. Even broadcasters are limited on showing video clips when reporting the results.

    So all these videos and clips show up on YouTube. But watch them quickly because the UFC protects its brand and sends takedown notices to YouTube.

    All this takes time and you can easily watch or download any fight clips you want in the 24-28 hrs it takes the UFC to file formal notice on YouTube.

    YouTube loves it and actually fought against the responsibility of taking down copyright material.

    Now they have to take copyright material down with a properly formatted request by the copyright holder.

    Unless it is "fair use"....
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    • Profile picture of the author AffiliateWaves
      Originally Posted by onSubie View Post

      A woman posted a video of her toddler dancing to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" on YouTube. After racking up hits, YouTube removed the video after a copyright claim by Universal Music.



      The video has since been restored to YouTube and has racked up over 1 million hits.
      She will be able to make lot of easy money from it .

      Now Game companies will also sue gamers uploading game play videos to YouTube .

      Hihi End to Youtube revenues
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  • Profile picture of the author iVlog
    This will be very interesting, & the way the court rules will have a huge impact on user generated content.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      record labels and publishers should just get on board and find ways to make it work
      You would think - but with videos like this one...the person making it has no intention of paying anything to anyone.

      I guess I don't understand why someone would fight through the courts to keep a video of their kid online...bouncing around. Cute - but not unique - all kids do it. Wonder if one of the parents is a lawyer

      Personally, I don't understand people who put their children online for all to see. Sort of the modern equivalent to "glad you stopped by - let me show you some home movies"....yawn.
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      Saving one dog will not change the world - but the world changes forever for that one dog
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