A Rockin' Cool Court Ruling

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled today that copyright owners must consider "fair use" before alleging infringement and sending take-down notices to YouTube and other video-sharing sites.

Previously, music companies and other copyright-holders could demand that clips of their work be removed without regard to fair use -- putting the burden on the "user" to challenge the threatening letter and assert his or her legal right to excerpt and repurpose limited clips. In this case, Universal Music did exactly that over this YouTube clip that featured part of a Prince song in the background:

Wired.com quoted from the judge's decision:

Even if Universal is correct that fair use only excuses infringement, the fact remains that fair use is a lawful use of a copyright. Accordingly, in order for a copyright owner to proceed under the DMCA with 'a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law,' the owner must evaluate whether the material makes fair use of the copyright.

Universal might now be liable for damages based on its "misrepresentation claim."

This is good news. The Digital Millenium Copyright Act has put a serious squeeze on fair use. Judge Fogel's decision should bring back some much-needed breathing room.