Copyright Sanity

Thank God a judge has recognized there should be reasonable limits on DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) claims:
"A federal judge on Wednesday gave more weight to the concept of "fair use" when he threw a lifeline to a Pennsylvania mother's lawsuit against Universal Music."
see:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10021999-93.html
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/lenz_v_universal/lenzorder082008.pdf

To date, corporations had shown little restraint in filing DMCA based copyright infringement claims willy nilly without considering whether they are reasonable or not. They have thrown all sorts of infringement claims at others whether or not they were valid. Most people so threatened have not been able to protect themselves and so simply backed down even though they had not done anything wrong. Corporation with deep pockets were able to get away with being copyright bullies with no adverse consequence if they were wrong.

Now corporations will need to be more careful and considerate. Copyright has distinct limits and it is important for those limits to be better understood, recognized, and enforced.