Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. et al.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that
copyright holders must consider the fair-use doctrine prior to
issuing a takedown notification under the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA). Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. et
al., Case Nos. 13-16106, -16107 (9th Cir., Sept. 14, 2015)
(Tallman, J.) (Smith, Jr., J., concurring-in-part and
dissenting-in-part).
Plaintiff Stephanie Lenz uploaded to YouTube a 29-second home
video featuring her children dancing to the Prince song
Let's Go Crazy. As Prince's publishing
administrator at the time, Universal Music (Universal) routinely
policed user-generated content sites such as YouTube for copyright
misuses. While Universal employed a process for determining whether
particular content rose to the level of enforcement action, its
guidelines did not explicitly include consideration of the fair-use
doctrine. Universal included Lenz's video among hundreds of
others as part of a
