Video with a dancing girl on YouTube recognized as legitimate

After five years (!) Of legal proceedings, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recognized that Universal Music Studio violated the DMCA law by sending a YouTube request to remove a 30-second video with a girl named Stephanie Lenz dancing in the kitchen to the music of Prince . The court ruled that Universal Music did not take into account the principle of "fair use" (fair use).

It is rather surprising that the amateur video from 2007 was the subject of such a lengthy trial, especially since there is almost no disassembly of the background music. During the legal litigation, Little Stephanie went to school and, probably, learned to read court documents in her own case.

But this trial was important. The key question was whether Universal Music was supposed to consider the principle of “fair use” before sending the request to delete the video.
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Paragraph 512 (f) of the DMCA Act states that the sender of a DMCA content removal requirement may be liable for damages resulting from the removal of content by mistake (misrepresentations), including to compensate for legal costs and the cost of an attorney. But historically this paragraph of the law has not been applied. Mainly, due to the previous court verdict in the Lenz case in favor of Universal Music.

The appellate court has now corrected the lower court’s decision, so paragraph 512 (f) should again be taken into account to holders who carry out automatic “fan mailings” with thousands of deletion references.

True, the decision of the appellate court was made with the proviso that automated distribution of requirements does not in itself violate the DMCA. But if the principle of fair use is ignored, the right holder will have to compensate for the costs.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation welcomed the important victory in the Lenz v. Universal case.