This is an interesting but expected judgement folks
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/25/dancing_baby_universal_dmca/Copyright holders must assess whether material has been used fairly before they demand that it be taken off the Internet, a US court has ruled. The case involved a YouTube video clip of a baby dancing to a Prince song.
Rights holders who demand that material be taken offline without such an assessment risk paying out damages and costs to whoever published the material, the court said.
She is suing under section 512(f) of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which says that:
Any person who knowingly materially misrepresents under this section
(1) that material or activity is infringing,
(2) that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification,
shall be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys' fees, incurred by the alleged infringer, by any copyright owner or copyright owner's authorized licensee, or by a service provider, who is injured by such misrepresentation, as the result of the service provider relying upon such misrepresentation in removing or disabling access to the material or activity claimed to be infringing, or in replacing the removed material or ceasing to disable access to it."
Lenz argued that companies such as Universal which wanted to remove material such as her video were obliged to assess whether or not material came under the fair use exclusions to copyright law.
This is a major victory for common sense and should see rights holders acting more responsibly and in good faith before they issue such such dramatic notices that previously have caused carnage for many busy sites that have been on the receiving end of a malicious/erroneous take down threat, (something I call a "fake-down"), this ruling ensures the normal balance of rights is restored.
