Mom Sues Music Company Over Baby Video Removal

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.'"

Comments

She's going to lose.

[JustShootMe]

Sorry, but that's probably what's going to happen.

The fact is, that while it is indeed a derivative work, that is not fair use, and she did use a copyrighted work without authorization. We can argue over and over about whether that law is right, but it is what it is.

Her suing over that is colossally stupid and will likely just end in heartache.

I'm all for taking a rpincipled stand. But you need to make sure you're in the right.

(and because some moderators appear to be on crack based on their moderation of some previous comments, let me say that this is neither intended as a troll or flamebait)