Music companies are going after your YouTube Video's

Mom Sues Universal Music For Blocking YouTube Video

SAN FRANCISCO -- A Pennsylvania mother sued Universal Music Publishing Co. in federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday for forcing YouTube to take down her home video of her toddler son dancing to 29 seconds of a Prince song.

Stephanie Lenz's lawsuit accuses Universal Music of sending YouTube an allegedly baseless complaint on June 4 claiming that her video violated the company's copyright to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy."

The complaint resulted in YouTube's removal of the video from its Web site for six weeks until Lenz sent the video-sharing Web site a counter-notice demanding reposting, the lawsuit says.

Lenz said, "I was really surprised and angry when I learned my video was removed. Universal should not be using legal threats to try to prevent people from sharing videos of their kids with family and friends."

The lawsuit contends the brief video is protected by the doctrine of fair use, which allows limited use of copyrighted material for purposes such as commentary and artistic expression.

The 29-second film shows Lenz's 18-month-old son Holden bouncing to the rock star's song and smiling at the camera as he pushes a rolling walker around her kitchen.

Lenz, a writer who lives in the western Pennsylvania town of Gallitzin, recorded the scene with a digital camera in February and posted it on YouTube for her family and friends to see, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks a court order barring Universal from filing future copyright claims over the video as well as unspecified financial compensation for Lenz's loss of free speech and her costs in securing the reposting.

Lenz is represented by attorneys from the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has a project of protecting online free speech.

EFF attorney Jason Schultz said the lawsuit was filed in the federal court for Northern California because YouTube has headquarters in San Bruno and is now owned by Mountain View-based Google.

Schultz said Lenz claims the background recording of the song was fair use because it was brief, noncommercial personal use and was employed in artistic expression.

"The music is playing in her kitchen. She's just recording her child," the attorney said.

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Your Children’s School is allowig outsiders to arrest them on campus for file sharing crimes

Michael Goldstein of Stun Mobile Media and the USA Group have been following the court cases of file sharing of illegal content over the internet, and came across the new alarming article by Melissa Santos about a school’s identifying its students under threat of subpoena. For the school to avoid a lawsuit of their own, they are turning in and pointing out students.

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The University of Washington announced a new policy about illegal music file-sharing on campus:

• The school will not shield students from lawsuits from the recording industry.
• The school will track students down and serve them with legal notices.
• The student legal notice informs about settlement options prior to a lawsuit.
• The school will not pass the students’ names to the association.



A University of Washington spokeswomen said about the legal notices:
• The school will forward notices of pending lawsuits from the Recording Industry Association of America to students who engage in illegal downloading on the university’s computer network.
• The notices say offending students have 20 days to settle with the association by paying it between $3,000 to $5,000
• If the offending student does not pay the settlement, they will be taken to court without possibility of a settlement.
Eric Godfrey, a student spokesman for the students at the University of Washington Seattle campus, informed students of the University of Washington policy Monday through a disturbing campus wide e-mail. The email said: “some students have letters on the way.”

Where do students typically use their computers?
Students can use the University of Washington Internet network not only in dorms and in campus computer labs, but also in fraternities, sororities and other housing off-campus.



Other University’s are wondering if their students need to worry. Spokesman Mike Wark said of his University, that it has not been a discussion of the school’s administrators on their policies concerning illegal file-sharing.



While no known students of the University of Washington have been prosecuted for illegal file-sharing to date, the music companies are getting their message across to try and stop illegal file-sharing.




With the current speed of downloading and file sharing moving at speeds that don’t deter file sharing, and taking no longer than an IPOD song to be downloaded, it is no wonder that the music industry is taking notice and trying to crack down on file-sharing services. Their current campaign is to target individual downloaders at some token schools and Universities without going all out to war.


The recording companies started sending pre-lawsuit letters to certain universities earlier this year as a strategy to combat file-sharing on campuses. By making their message known through the press and the courts, they might not have to crack down at all schools.

Michael Goldstein, who regularly writes about the casual illegal downloading by today’s teens to portable computers, mobile phones, MP3 players, suggested that the teens will grow up and continue to see nothing wrong with illegal file-sharing as adults. Mr. Michael Goldstein’s Stun Mobile Media and USA group tackle this idea with a suggestion and implementation of creating content enriched with advertising. It’s like giving your kids vitamin enriched food and drinks. It tastes the same, and they don’t see or hear the difference, and its better for you. Mr. Goldstein finds it hard to police all teens and adults who continue illegal file-sharing, rather he suggests looking at the problem with a new solution.
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