Dancing Baby Takes on Universal

This just in from the "They Can't Possibly be That Stupid Department"... Universal Studios is being sued for forcing YouTube to remove a personal video of a baby dancing to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" tune in the background. Yes, they got caught being unreasonable and now it's turning into a lawsuit so that they hopefully learn to not do this again. Maybe, if this happens - a lot - then perhaps somebody in a suit will finally get a clue.

What happened is that Universal, copyright owner to "Let's Go Crazy" apparently found the video online and quickly realized that, hey - this kid didn't pay for the rights to use this song online! They quickly asked YouTube to remove the video and YouTube complied. In case you've been hiding under a rock of late, YouTube is being assaulted left and right by copyright and use violation-based lawsuits. They aren't exactly in a position to deny removals and probably don't even take a terribly long amount of time to investigate each request if it comes from a known source.

To their credit, YouTube reposted the video once the lawsuit (and ridiculous nature of the request) became more public. Kudos to them.

So what is the nature of the lawsuit? Well the Electronics Frontier Foundation (EFF) is backing the mother and alleging abuse of the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and asking for damages and injunctive relief to make sure that Universal doesn't bring additional copyright claims against the mother down the road.

"Universal's takedown notice doesn't even pass the laugh test," said EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry. "Copyright holders should be held accountable when they undermine non-infringing, fair uses like this video."

This seems to be happening more and more of late, with record labels and copyright holders getting more nervous and trigger-happy in the wake of a changing market. In my opinion they simply have no idea what the landscape will look like in 5 years and are trying desperately to keep the status quo instead of embracing the future and being a part of it. As a result, the future will likely see them in a somewhat reduced role. Just look at Universal's attitude with Apple Music's iTunes Store to get a picture of the frightened stance these companies are taking to "protect" their rights.