Earlier this week, a US appeals court ruled that any copyright holder must first consider whether or not their material has been used by another party via YouTube on a ‘fair use’ basis, before submitting a formal request for the content to be removed.
YouTube has become an international success as a video-sharing platform, and it was bought by Google in 2006.
Many lawsuits launched in relation to the site are concerned with users sharing content that they do not own the copyright to, but YouTube follows the legal doctrine of ‘fair use’, which allows people to re-use copyrighted material without the copyright holder’s permission, in certain circumstances.
The case that has seen the ‘fair use’ policy revisited involves a 29-second home video of a toddler dancing to Let’s Go Crazy – a pop hit released in 1984 by Prince and The Revolution.
Stephanie Lenz, who uploaded the video, claimed that she only did so because she wanted to share the footage of her son with family and friends.
After being made aware of the content, Universal Music Group made YouTube remove the video, saying that it was unauthorised and had been uploaded without Prince’s permission, who they were representing.
However, Judge Richard Tallman stated that “Copyright holders cannot shirk their duty to consider – in good faith and prior to sending a takedown notification – whether allegedly infringing material constitutes fair use.”
Following the ruling in favour of Ms Lenz, internet service providers and copyright holders will face more difficulty in removing online material that demonstrates ‘fair use’, which is already a major difficulty given the international scale and user numbers of services like YouTube.