[Infowarrior] - The Home Video Prince Doesn't Want You to See

[Richard Forno]

ABC News
The Home Video Prince Doesn't Want You to See
Pa. Mom Fights Back With Lawsuit Against Music Company
By JIM AVILA, CHRIS FRANCESCANI and MARY HARRIS
ABC News Law & Justice Unit

Oct. 26, 2007 ‹

A bouncing YouTube baby has be-bopped his way right into the legal
cross-hairs of the pop star Prince, sparking a lawsuit that could test the
boundaries of U.S. copyright law.

Holden Lenz, 18 months old, is the pajama-clad star of a 29-second home
movie shot by his mother in the family's rural Pennsylvania kitchen and
posted last February on the popular video site YouTube.

In the video, the child is seen bouncing and swaying for the camera, as,
faintly, the Prince hit "Let's Go Crazy" plays on a CD player in the
background.

Twenty eight people, mostly friends and family, had viewed the YouTube video
by June, when mom Stephanie Lenz said she received an e-mail from YouTube
informing her that her video had been removed from the site at the request
of Universal Music Publishing Group, the recording industry's largest label,
and warning her that future copyright infringements on her part could force
the Web site to cancel her account.

'Frightened, Then Angry'

"All of my [YouTube] videos are home videos, so I thought it was some kind
of scam,'' Lenz told ABC News' Law & Justice Unit. When she realized YouTube
had actually taken her video down, she said she was shocked.

"At first it frightened me, because I saw who had filed'' the takedown
notice, she said.

"It was Universal Music Publishing Group, and I was afraid that ... they
might come after me. ... And the more afraid I got, the angrier I got. ... I
was afraid that the recording industry might come after me the way they've
come after other people for downloading music or file sharing.

"I thought even though I didn't do anything wrong that they might want to
file some kind of suit against me, take my house, come after me.

"And I didn't like feeling afraid,'' she continued. "I didn't like feeling
that I could get in trouble for something as simple as posting a home video
for my friends and family to see."

Lenz filed a "counter-notice" with YouTube, and the Web site put her video
back up about six weeks later.


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http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3777651