A California federal judge has said there’s no precedent to work with in a case involving a mother who, in fighting to keep a video of her son posted to YouTube, says her first amendment rights were violated. The remarks came Friday in Judge Jeremy Fogel’s San Jose courtroom in a motion to dismiss hearing stemming from a case brought by Pennsylvania mom Stephanie Lenz.
Lenz is challenging Universal Music Publishing — which owns and administers copyrights of songs written by the artist Prince — alleging the company misrepresented copyright claims when it sent a takedown notice to video sharing site YouTube in June 2007 over a video she posted to the site. The home movie, filmed in February 2007, shows Lenz’s toddler son, Holden, warbling to Prince’s 1984 hit “Let’s Go Crazy.” YouTube removed the clip after receiving the takedown letter from Universal, and kept it off its site for about six weeks.
