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posted by janrinok on Friday February 28 2014, @09:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the perhaps-we-shouldn't-have-done-that dept.

Fluffeh writes:

"Lawrence Lessig is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School but is probably best known to readers for his work with Creative Commons, the Free Software Foundation, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Without considering fair use, Liberation Music wrongly had some of Lessig's work removed from YouTube and threatened to sue. It didn't go well. Liberation will pay Lessig an undisclosed sum for the damages it caused with the wrongful takedown. The money will go towards supporting the EFF's work on open access and the label will also 'adopt new policies' that respect fair use."

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by drussell on Friday February 28 2014, @09:07PM

    by drussell (2678) on Friday February 28 2014, @09:07PM (#8774) Journal

    I'd seen this one in the submissions... hoped it would make it on the main page :)

    While it shouldn't be necessary in the first place, for once a victory... Nice to see.

    Now if we could just fix the other quadrillion instances or fix the whole system, we'd be set but I don't see that happening any time soon, unfortunately.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by NovelUserName on Friday February 28 2014, @09:50PM

      by NovelUserName (768) on Friday February 28 2014, @09:50PM (#8817)

      Agreed: Kudos to Professor Lessig for presenting a single case example. Now we, as a society, need to do the really hard work and generalize the results.

      • (Score: 4, Informative) by mcgrew on Friday February 28 2014, @10:04PM

        by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Friday February 28 2014, @10:04PM (#8832) Homepage Journal

        He's been doing this stuff for a long time. I read one of his books (they're online), his biggest regret is losing the case against excessive copyright lengths before the supreme court, but he's had victories as well. Like this.

        See, not ALL lawyers are evil!

        --
        mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Random2 on Friday February 28 2014, @10:26PM

          by Random2 (669) on Friday February 28 2014, @10:26PM (#8845)

          Indeed, it's nice to see lawyers like these. I know America in particular is in desperate need of another Louis_Brandeis [wikipedia.org].

          The downside of being one of the 'good guys' is how easily you're forgotten....

          --
          If only I registered 3 users earlier....
    • (Score: 5, Informative) by drussell on Friday February 28 2014, @10:45PM

      by drussell (2678) on Friday February 28 2014, @10:45PM (#8858) Journal

      I hate replying to myself, but I had meant to mention this in my post but forgot... Drats!

      Though I'm sure most people here are probably familiar with many of Lessig's talks, lectures, presentations, etc. but if you've never seen it or need a good overview to pass on to others, his Ted Talk on copyright and creativity is a good one:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q25-S7jzgs [youtube.com]

      • (Score: 2) by SMI on Saturday March 01 2014, @03:31AM

        by SMI (333) on Saturday March 01 2014, @03:31AM (#8950)

        Thanks, reference material is always appreciated.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by epyx on Friday February 28 2014, @09:08PM

    by epyx (2817) on Friday February 28 2014, @09:08PM (#8777)

    This is all well and good, but was Liberation charged with perjury as is the supposed punishment for filing a false takedown?

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by compro01 on Friday February 28 2014, @09:23PM

      by compro01 (2515) on Friday February 28 2014, @09:23PM (#8794)

      No. This doesn't fit the DMCA's stupid definition of a false takedown.

      • (Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Friday February 28 2014, @09:25PM

        by GungnirSniper (1671) on Friday February 28 2014, @09:25PM (#8797) Journal

        Isn't this something that was done in good faith, since this was a legitimate legal question? It's not like they didn't own the copyrights, as has happened in other cases.

        • (Score: 5, Informative) by epyx on Friday February 28 2014, @09:38PM

          by epyx (2817) on Friday February 28 2014, @09:38PM (#8807)

          While Lessig did retract his counter-notice, in August 2013 and with support from the EFF he sued Liberation Music, asserting his right to use the music clip under the fair use doctrine. Liberation acted in bad faith when it sent the takedown notice, Lessig’s lawsuit said, and “knowingly and materially†misrepresented Lessig’s video as infringing copyright.

          That paragraph makes me think that Lessig had a valid legal argument about Liberation knowingly filing a false DMCA.. I wondered if they settled to avoid a precedent.

          • (Score: 3, Interesting) by hatta on Saturday March 01 2014, @05:06AM

            by hatta (879) on Saturday March 01 2014, @05:06AM (#8969)

            I wonder why Lessig accepted the settlement. I'd expect him to prefer the precedent to the settlement.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by glyph on Saturday March 01 2014, @02:11AM

        by glyph (245) on Saturday March 01 2014, @02:11AM (#8932)

        Furthermore, Youtube is not bound by the DMCA. They have a one-sided arrangement negotiated with the content industry so that they don't need it's protections as a safe harbour, and you are bound to this agreement via the Youtube TOS. There is no false takedown provision at all. Also unlike under the DMCA, if the claimant wants to refuse your counter notice, *you* must sue *them* to get the alert removed an the video/account restored.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by mrider on Friday February 28 2014, @09:42PM

      by mrider (3252) on Friday February 28 2014, @09:42PM (#8809)

      Came here to say exactly the same thing and found this post. It's nice that this went this way, but it sure would have been nice if Liberation Music had of gotten such a severe slap-down that others would think twice before pulling out the DMCA hammer.

      --

      Doctor: "Do you hear voices?"

      Me: "Only when my bluetooth is charged."

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by strattitarius on Friday February 28 2014, @09:21PM

    by strattitarius (3191) on Friday February 28 2014, @09:21PM (#8791) Journal

    Because you would have to be a moron to use the DCMA against Lessig. Even the Jerk would have been overruled by his Brialliant side on this one.

    --
    Slashdot Beta Sucks. Soylent Alpha Rules. News at 11.
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by strattitarius on Friday February 28 2014, @09:30PM

      by strattitarius (3191) on Friday February 28 2014, @09:30PM (#8802) Journal

      And I just realized that I cannot type Brilliant without adding an extra 'a'.

      --
      Slashdot Beta Sucks. Soylent Alpha Rules. News at 11.
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by skullz on Friday February 28 2014, @09:30PM

    by skullz (2532) on Friday February 28 2014, @09:30PM (#8803)

    Sad that it feels like any joker can throw down a DMCA and companies duck for cover but it takes the EFF, a fair use crusader, and a lawyer to disagree with a notice.

  • (Score: 1) by citizenr on Saturday March 01 2014, @02:13AM

    by citizenr (2737) on Saturday March 01 2014, @02:13AM (#8933)

    Settlements just a slap on the wrist, tehy are basically a Win for the settling party. They let lawyers say "Hey, look how much more you would of paid if we didnt win you this settlement".

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by cge on Saturday March 01 2014, @06:43AM

    by cge (67) on Saturday March 01 2014, @06:43AM (#8993)

    It is worth noting that this was not a typical settlement. Unlike the usual "we don't believe we did anything wrong, but are settling to avoid a protracted legal battle" line used in settlements, Liberation Music did admit fault, and is agreeing to significantly change their takedown notice policies: most takedown notices used on Youtube are far, far too long to be reviewed by humans, yet that appears to be what Liberation Music has agreed to.

    As another note, while the settlement amount is described as confidential, since the EFF is a 501(c)3 non-profit, won't the amount show up in their 2014 Form 990 next year?