There are always twits in most of litigation cases, however, in case of Dancing Baby, nobody knew that the verdict would come after 10 long years. The EFF on behalf of its client Stephanie Lenz filed a lawsuit in 2007. The Lawsuit was against a Music Group commonly known as Universal Music Group (UMG). The case has finally been resolved after an entire decade. The most important thing about this case is that it has at least grabbed the attention of internet users and made them realize how important it is to fairly use copyrighted material.
When This All Was Started?
This astonishing case began when Lenz happened to share a video on YouTube in which she showed her little kid dancing while in the background a song was playing called “Let’s Go Crazy”. The song belonged to Universal Group which decided to use their copyright and the video was taken down on the basis of their claim. The basic purpose for bringing the case to the court was to bring more clarity over the copyright issues and Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was actually designed by the congress to highlight precise rules to be taken in case of copyright violation. The rules may be used by copyright holders, service providers as well as common users. The main objective of this program was to follow a proper process to send a notice and then request for taking down the copyright content. Since there were hardly ever such cases, there were lots of confusion and most of the people did not really know the rules.
Finally Some Good News after 11 Years
The dancing baby case took too long and Universal group had to invest a lot of their time and money to resolve it. However, they finally decided to settle it amicably with the Stephanie Lenz who took the case for litigation. The case was taken to the Supreme Court in June 2017 but it was declined by the court for hearing.
Now the good news is that the two sides have finally agreed to an acceptable conclusion of the case. The Universal Group agreed that due to this long case of copyright violation, they have been able to make their takedown process even better and fair.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of Lenz argued that the only problem was that the Universal should not have neglected a user rights to fair use of material available online or offline. Furthermore, they believe that a proper and appropriate process must be adopted to take actions in such cases.
Formal Statements from Both Sides
Universal Music Group’s Chief Counsel Mr. David Kokakis said in a formal statement that we feel proud on our approach to protect the songs written by our valued writers. This case has been very helpful for us to create a tempered and fair process for taking potential copyright takedowns. Now it will be much easier to deal with copyright violation cases in future.
On the other hand, Stephanie Lenz said in her formal statement that it is quite appreciable that the Universal Group has reviewed their takedown process. She further said if their review process was in place in 2007, I would not have to take the case for litigation. She also appreciated the Electronic Frontier Foundation for their help and support throughout those years.
Conclusion
The Dancing Baby case has played a vital role in highlighting the importance of copyright material and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Now internet users are more careful in using freely available material either it is some sort of music, video, pictures or even background images. On the other hand, copyright holders and service providers have also realized that how they should act upon fair usage policy. In short this case has made both sides realize their responsibilities.