Mom battles Universal Music over pulled YouTube video

The music label tried—and failed—to force a Pennsylvania woman to take down a YouTube video of her toddler rocking out to a Prince song. Now she wants her day in court.

Wired News reports that a federal judge is considering Stephanie Lenz's lawsuit again Universal Music, which accuses the music label of being way to quick to issue "takedown" letters, even in cases where the material in question clearly constitutes fair use.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel is expected to rule shortly on whether the lawsuit, which is backed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, can go forward.

As the Wired News story points out, Universal isn't contesting whether Lenz's innocuous, 30-second clip of her onesie-clad kid jamming to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" makes "fair use" of the song.

Instead, the label argues that since it owns the copyright to "Let's Go Crazy," it had the right to issue a "takedown" notice to YouTube, even though the amateurish video (which was pulled down last year, then reposted six weeks later) couldn't pose less of a threat to future sales of the song.

Music labels and other copyright holders routinely fire off takedown notices to content providers like YouTube, and offending videos are typically pulled down automatically. Uploaders can request that their videos get reposted, as Lenz (successfully) did. Still, the whole thing has a "guilty until proven innocent" feel to it.

Lenz's lawsuit calls for reimbursement of her legal fees and unspecified damages against Universal for issuing the takedown notice.

"I figure I have nothing to lose," Lenz told the Mercury News last week. "The music companies are just going to keep doing this to people. I think it's my responsibility to stand up to them and say, 'That's enough.'"

Related:
Universal Says DMCA Takedown Notices Can Ignore 'Fair Use' [Wired News]
Mom fights music giant [Mercury News]