'Dancing baby' lawsuit can proceed, judge rules

updated 9:13 p.m. ET Aug. 20, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge is allowing a Pennsylvania woman to sue Universal Music Corp. for forcing YouTube to take down a video clip of her baby dancing to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy."

Universal Music demanded the removal of the 29-second home video by Stephanie Lenz of Gallitzin, Pa., because it allegedly violated copyright laws on the song.

But a San Jose-based judge says Universal needed to first consider whether the clip was "fair use" of the material.

Fair use provisions of the U.S. copyright act allow segments of copyrighted works to be used for purposes of parody or satire or in reviews and other limited circumstances.

It's the first such legal ruling requiring copyright owners to consider fair use of their material before demanding that Internet sites such as YouTube remove material.

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