Takedown Hall of Shame Debuts at Electronic Frontier Foundation
Rebecca Schoff, Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, November 05, 2009
Abstract: The Electronic Frontier Foundation has inaugurated a new venue for exposing bogus copyright and trademark claims that stifle free speech on the Internet.
As part of their "No Downtime for Free Speech Campaign", the Electronic Frontier Foundation has created the Takedown Hall of Shame, a web site calling attention to egregious abuses of trademark and copyright law. Many of the featured takedown notices suggest calculated efforts to use intellectual property law to silence critics or political opponents and, as such, are deeply concerning. (The DMCA does provide a cause of action against a certain kind of misuse of the takedown process, see DMCA Notices.) All the takedowns noted in the Hall of Shame are really worthy of attention, but our personal favorite is Universal Music Group's attempt to yank down this video of a dancing baby. That's right: UMG shot off a takedown notice to a couple of proud parents sharing a clip of their bouncy, giggly baby dancing to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy."
Those parents used the counter-notification process to have their video reinstated on YouTube and then fought UMG in court, represented by lawyers from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. As of August 2008, the U.S. District Court for Northern California denied Universal Music Group's latest motion to dismiss the case, and rendered a landmark judgment that copyright holders must make a good faith consideration of fair use before sending takedown notices. You can follow the case on the EFF site here. Rock on, dancing baby, rock on!
Chilling Effects Clearinghouse page printed from: https://www.chillingeffects.org/weather.cgi?WeatherID=618
