WIPR survey: SCOTUS shouldn’t hear ‘Dancing baby’ dispute
The US Supreme Court should deny the petition in the ‘Dancing baby’ copyright clash, according to WIPR readers.
Last week, WIPR reported that the US acting solicitor general had urged the court to deny the petition.
The Supreme Court had asked the government to weigh in on the dispute, which centres on a video of a child dancing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” that was uploaded to YouTube.
Universal had sent YouTube a take-down notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) responded by suing Universal on behalf of the uploader.
The case found its way to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which held that copyright owners must consider whether allegedly infringing content has been used fairly before requesting it be taken down from websites.
It added that as long as a copyright owner has a good-faith belief that it will prevail against a fair use claim, that is sufficient for filing a request.
The EFF filed a writ of certiorari at the Supreme Court in August last year.
Responding to a survey question on whether the court should deny the petition, 80% said yes.
“Do we really need to have the position even more complicated by a Supreme Court decision which will then be fastened on by commentators and players alike as underpinning any number of possibly irreconcilable positions?” one reader questioned.
Another reader, who believed that the court should hear the clash, said it’s important that only content that is actually infringing should be taken down from the internet or where there is a reasonable belief that there is infringement.
“The Supreme Court should ensure that this is the case,” they added.
For this week’s survey, we ask: The Defend Trade Secrets Act turned one year old last week. Has it been a success?
Join us for a FREE webinar - The Halo effect: walking the wilfulness tightrope - on May 16
Today’s top stories
Jaguar Land Rover pounces on Puma trademark
Federal Circuit upholds Twitter patent victory
Deadmau5 hits back in trademark cat fight
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox
Already registered?
Login to your account
If you don't have a login or your access has expired, you will need to purchase a subscription to gain access to this article, including all our online content.
For more information on individual annual subscriptions for full paid access and corporate subscription options please contact us.
To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.
For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk