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Newest YouTube User To Fight a Takedown: Lawrence Lessig

Posted by timothy on from the one-hand-tied-behind-his-back dept.

onehitwonder writes "Lawrence Lessig has teamed with the Electronic Frontier Foundation to sue Liberation Music, which recently demanded that YouTube take down a lecture Lessig had posted that features clips from the song 'Lisztomania' by the French band Phoenix (on Liberation Music's label). Liberation claimed copyright infringement as the reason it demanded the takedown, but in his countersuit, Lessig is claiming Liberation's 'overly aggressive takedown violates the DMCA and that it should be made to pay damages,' according to Ars Technica."

3 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Stupid comment... by dk20 · · Score: 5, Informative

    They did the work "for hire" and don't own the rights, the labels do.

  2. Re:I'm confused by Frobnicator · · Score: 5, Informative

    Fair Use is pretty well defined, in a nutshell you can use 30 consecutive seconds of audio before it becomes an infringement, or the entire track in the case of a narrative... if I use multiple fades and ...

    Wa-huh?

    We're talking US law, right?

    Fair Use is covered by Title 17 of the U.S.Code, section 107: "Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Fair Use". Note that the law does not talk about 30 consecutive seconds of one type of clip or entire lengths for other types of tracks. You are confusing details from a mish-mash cases with the actual law.

    Fortunately Lessig is a lawyer, and knows the details of copyright law better than most anyone.

    --
    //TODO: Think of witty sig statement
  3. Re:Fair use "exemptions" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    from the fine article:

    According to the complaint, Lessig showed clips of different groups of amateurs dancing to the song in Brazil, Israel, Brooklyn, Latvia, and Kenya. His point was such spontaneous outbreaks of online culture are "the latest in the time-honored 'call and response' tradition of communication."

    So, he had video clips of people dancing to underscore the point of the presentation. People dancing in random parts of the world is the original content, and material (hell, the point) to his presentation. The non-profit/no-loss part is COMPLETELY relevant, as it is two of the four tests used in determining if something is fair use:

    The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
    The nature of the copyrighted work
    The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
    The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

    --United States Copyright Office

    finally, you could just watch the presentation and judge for yourself.