Fair Use Must Be Considered In DMCA Notices

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "US District Judge Jeremy Fogel has ruled that an 'allegation that a copyright owner acted in bad faith by issuing a takedown notice without proper consideration of the fair use doctrine thus is sufficient to state a misrepresentation claim,' which paves the way for a lawsuit against Universal Music over a ridiculous DMCA Takedown notice they filed. One can only hope that this ruling will some day be used against those who file misguided copyright complaints against computer printers. Those lawyers who rely upon buggy infringement detection programs to do their thinking for them — programs which are incapable of making subjective considerations like fair use — might want to think again before rubber stamping computer-generated DMCA Takedown notices."

Comments

Re:A Bit Tilted?

[larry bagina]

Ever eat a nice steak? mmm tasty. Ever try eating the turds the next morning? Not quite as good, is it?

So why does slashdot push 3rd or 4th hand me too circle jerk blog links instead of the original source?

Re:a lot of us are happy

[bigstrat2003]

Oh please. If I like the way you've decorated your yard, then I can decorate mine exactly like it. I don't care how hard you worked to come up with that particular arrangement. If I like it, I can copy it. That's to illustrate the idea that you can most certainly enjoy the fruits of another's labor without their permission. Nothing but the law makes written works a protected class.

a) When decorating someone's yard is a creative work, get back to me.

b) When I decorate my yard, I'm not doing it to make money, so I don't give a damn what anyone does with respect to my yard decorations (except insofar as I'll be annoyed if they mess my decorations up, and I have to re-do them).

Copyright most certainly is an inherent right, but not at first glance. It is the application of an inherent right (you get to do business how you want, free of other people's interference) to creative works, to make it easier to punish violations of this right.

Nothing but the law makes written works a protected class.

The law, and basic morality. If you think we should throw authors to the wolves, effectively ruining their ability to turn a profit from their work, so be it, but know that it's a blatantly immoral thing to do.