Prince Loses Points: DMCA Nonsense
I came across an article in The Register a little while ago about one mom’s fight to keep a 29 second video clip of her son dancing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” up on YouTube.
In summary: The PA resident, Stephanie Lenz, had placed a 29 second clip of her dancing baby boy up on YouTube in order to share with family and friends. Universal (Prince’s label) contacted YouTube purportedly at the artist’s behest, citing the DMCA
Momma contacted the EFF and also filed a suit against the record label, Universal Music Group, to get the clip put back up as well as damages.
Current the clip is back up on YouTube, but as of the Register’s October 30th article, the lawsuit is still underway.
Without further ado, the “objectionable” clip.
I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on this. I personally feel like the artist and recording company have lost face with this action, and that the more public this becomes, the worse it will look for the two of them. The mother has nothing to lose but time, and possibly some serious lawyer’s fees. In my mind this is not a landmark case in terms of establishing laws, but in enforcing them. And of course the neverending “Corporate vs. Consumer” idea that pervades the culture these days.
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Damian said,
August 11, 2008 @ 9:19 am
It seems to me that the song plays only an incidental part in the clip - it’s background noise. It’s obvious that anyone wanting to consume the music would get it from a better source than this, thus it constitutes no threat to the copyright holder’s sales. I don’t see how they could claim that any damage has been done.