Dive Summary:
- Renowned Harvard legal professor and Internet law scholar Lawrence Lessig filed suit last week in a Massachusetts federal court against Australian record company Liberation Music, which threatened to sue him for copyright violation.
- Lessig used French pop band Phoenix's "Lisztomania" in a 2010 online lecture from South Korea, which was then posted to YouTube, and he says the label improperly targeted him since his use of the song in the context of a 49-minute academic talk on Internet culture is protected under fair-use doctrine.
- During the lecture, amateurs' YouTube versions of the video for the hit song were used to illustrate how the Internet facilitates international communication, and Lessig's suit alleges Liberation Music's initial threat to sue him was an attempt to restrict his free speech via copyright law.
From the article:
... Daniel Nazer, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the lawsuit is about more than keeping an academic lecture on YouTube; the plaintiffs want to send a message about how copyright law is used in the digital era, Nazer said.
“Excessive copyright enforcement can suppress free speech,” he said. “All the copyright holder has to do is send a quick e-mail [to YouTube], and they can get things taken off the Internet, whether it’s fair use or not.” ...