Harvard Law Professor and IP Scholar Files Suit After Receiving DMCA Notice
Lawrence Lessig is very well-known in the legal community. Lessig, a professor at Harvard Law School, frequently lectures on copyright and technology issues around the world and serves on several organizations focused on expanding laws to allow increased access to creative works. Over 50 of his lectures can be found on YouTube, but one lecture in particular has led to recent litigation.
Lessig gave a lecture titled “Open” at a conference in Seoul, South Korea on June 4, 2010. Within the 49 minute lecture, he showed five clips of amateur music videos ranging from 10 seconds to 47 seconds. Each of the videos featured the song “Lisztomania” performed by a French band, Phoenix.
Lessig received a DMCA takedown notice from Liberation Media, a record company based in Australia, on behalf of Phoenix and the video was removed by YouTube. Owners of copyrighted material can submit takedown notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to internet service providers that are hosting allegedly infringing material. In this instance, Lessig received a notice from YouTube concerning the takedown notice on June 30, 2013, three years after the video was originally posted.
Lessig, represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), filed suit against Liberation Media in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts citing 17 U.S.C. §107 seeking a declaratory judgment stating that the video is protected by the fair use doctrine, injunctive relief from copyright claims by this company related to this video and damages for misrepresentation based on what he claims is the defendant’s “improper assertion of copyright infringement.”
The fair use doctrine can be applied when the following factors are considered: “(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.”
As of this writing, Liberation Media has not yet filed an answer to the complaint.
For more information:
- Case 1:13-cv-12028-NMG (D. Mass.)
- EFF: https://www.eff.org/cases/lawrence-lessig-v-liberation-music
- Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §107
- Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, 17 U.S.C. §512
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Jeffrey Antonelli is a member of the federal trial bar of the Northern District of Illinois and is admitted to numerous federal courts around the country. He has been a civil litigator nearly 25 years in a broad range of actions representing corporations and individuals as plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal court. Jeffrey has been interviewed by the media many times, including Bloomberg BNA, NBC, The New York Times, Chicago Lawyer, Chicago Tribune, and the longstanding lawyer’s publication Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. Prior to forming Antonelli Law Ltd. in 2007 Jeffrey worked for several litigation boutiques in Chicago’s Loop as well as a full service firm. His litigation experience includes hotly contested issues in intellectual property, business, insurance, and consumer fraud. He is an adviser to the Illinois Board of Higher Education Advisory Council for Private Business and Vocational Schools (PBVS), and was a member of the Illinois State Bar Association Education Law Section Council from 2012-2013. Jeffrey is especially proud of his work representing hundreds of students defrauded by improperly accredited educational institutions, including as certified class counsel. Before attending law school, Jeffrey was interested first in business, and then in biomedical ethics. These interests led him to graduate from the nation’s largest philosophy department at Loyola University in Chicago, where some of his favorite (and most challenging) subjects were cognitive science and philosophy of science. During college he held positions at the University of Chicago’s Ben May Institute; as a medical assistant for a University of Chicago foot and ankle surgeon; and volunteered in the emergency room at the University of Chicago Hospitals. These experiences led to studying health law at the DePaul College of Law where Jeffrey earned his law degree and a certificate in health law. At that time DePaul’s Institute for Health Law was consistently ranked in the top 10 health law specialty programs nationwide. During law school Jeffrey immersed himself in studying the practical and public policy aspects of health care through internships at the American Medical Association in Chicago, and on Capitol Hill at the Governmental Relations Office of the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington, DC. Jeffrey has concentrated in civil litigation throughout his legal career, and is a member of the federal trial bar of the Northern District of Illinois, the Central District of Illinois federal court, and all federal courts of Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana. In addition, he is a member of the DuPage County Bar Association and the Illinois State Bar Association. Jeffrey prides himself on his strong personal ideals, passionate, ethical advocacy, and working hard to bring the best possible results for his clients. He also maintains a special interest in cases involving fraud. Whether due to good parenting, his family’s law enforcement employment, undergraduate studies in philosophy including ethics, or a fortuitous outcome of good breeding, one essence of Jeffrey’s character is a drive to root out the truth behind fraudulent practices.