Mom Sues Music Company Over Baby Video Removal 391
penguin_dance writes "A Pennsylvania mom is fighting back, suing Universal Music Publishing Group for having a home movie taken down off of YouTube. The movie, featuring her 18-month old bouncing to Prince's song, 'Let's Go Crazy,' was cited for removal by the Group for copyright infringement. Mom Stephanie Lenz was first afraid they'd come after her — then she got angry. She got YouTube to put the video back up, she's enlisted the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and she's filed a civil lawsuit (pdf). 'I thought even though I didn't do anything wrong that they might want to file some kind of suit against me, take my house, come after me. And I didn't like feeling afraid ... I didn't like feeling that I could get in trouble for something as simple as posting a home video for my friends and family to see.'"
Prince? (Score:5, Funny)
A well-placed source directly involved in the situation confirmed to ABC News that Prince was directly involved in seeking the takedown of Lenz's video.
Anyone know how true is this? It seems like he might have better things to do... such as serving us pancakes.
that sure is the way to earn some goodwill... (Score:5, Funny)
Now, if someone wants to sue the mother for letting her young child dance to Prince, then I am all for that
How to get permission (Score:5, Funny)
All the while I am keeping my daughter informed of progress on this, so that when she grows to the point where she will be making choices regarding intellectual property, she will develop an appropriate respect for how the music publishers handle these things.
Re:Offense is the best defence? (Score:4, Funny)
>"just to avoid setting a precedent that they'd have to live with for the next 50 years."
Maybe she should try to copyright the precedent so it will last her lifetime + 50 (or whatever it is nowadays)
(for the humor-impaired ... its a JOKE!!!)
Hey Universal (Score:4, Funny)
Re:How to get permission (Score:2, Funny)
I had mod points this morning, but now they're gone. I want to mod you up, though. This seems like a profoundly good idea and a good way to educate your child about intellectual property laws. It's one thing to decide you want to shoot from the hip, use the music without permission, and hope your use will be covered by fair use; but it's quite another thing to teach your child (through your actions) that such is the way to proceed. So kudos to you.
Not that it's right for the companies to go around forcing takedowns of harmless uses of their copyrights, but it also says something that nobody even tries to secure permission before putting soundtracks in their youtube videos.
He's not what you'd call tall is he? (Score:1, Funny)
Small man's syndrome.
I say, (Score:3, Funny)
Re:dated copyrights (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Offense is the best defence? (Score:3, Funny)
don't feel TOO bad, it's a pretty long list.
Re:I know Prince is a scary guy, but this .... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:To paraphrase.... (Score:2, Funny)
New Terminology (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Video Game Clips (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I know Prince is a scary guy, but this .... (Score:1, Funny)
The most media-visible response here should be 10,000 short home videos posted on youtube by slashdot patrons, all featuring the the same soundtrack as Lenz' video clip.
Come on, we could do it with CSS code on t-shirts. Let's put up a few video clips.
The RIAA's new moto (Score:5, Funny)
YouTube recommendations are -1, Offtopic (Score:5, Funny)
* BLONDE AMERICAN SLUT
* Sexy Blonde Shows Off Her Oral Talents.
And no, I'm not making this up.
Re:Tag goodforher ! (Score:1, Funny)
You wouldn't steal a handbag. You wouldn't steal a car. You wouldn't steal a baby. You wouldn't shoot a policeman... and then steal his helmet. You wouldn't go to the toilet in his helmet... and then send it to the policeman's grieving widow... and then steal it again! Downloading films is stealing. If you do it, you will face the consequences.
Re:I know Prince is a scary guy, but this .... (Score:3, Funny)
As some other people have pointed out elsewhere in this thread, Prince didn't release it for free - the newspaper bought the copies and gave them to their subscribers as a promotional stunt.
He doesn't need help to look bad - just look at what Kevin Smith [prince.org] has to say about Prince (and he can say it because he forgot to sign the NDA).