Digital Smarts - Fair Use Guideline Defined by the “Dancing Baby” Case

In February 2007, a mother put up a 29 second video on YouTube of her toddler dancing while Prince’s song “Let’s Go Crazy” played in the background. Prince’s publishers objected and the mother filed a lawsuit.  This case has become representative of online clashes over copyright that have become commonplace since millions of ordinary people post similar candid videos of family and friends that may only incidentally include copyrighted media such as songs.

Recently the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco cleared the way for the case to go to trial, and they set a guideline that may change the way media companies police their holdings online. In its decision, the three-judge panel ruled that copyright holders must consider fair use before asking services like YouTube to remove videos that include material they control. “This ruling sends a strong message that copyright law does not authorize thoughtless censorship of lawful speech,” Corynne McSherry, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s legal director, said in a statement. The EFF represented the mother who posted the original video.