The DMCA protects “Internet service providers from liability for copyright infringement by their users, if the Internet service provider meets certain statutory requirements”. Yet there are times that the DMCA does not properly check if users are in fact infringing the law, and thus misinterpret what is considered fair use and what is not. For example, in 2009 Stephanie Lenz recorded a 20 second long home-made video of her baby dancing to Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy song from a CD player in the kitchen and uploaded it on YouTube so her family and friends could have access to it. As a result, Universal emitted a takedown notice claiming that the home video infringed the multinational’s copyrights to Prince’s song. When Stephanie learned YouTube had taken down her video, she hired a lawyer who sent YouTube a counter notice, claiming that her video was actually protected under fair use. This case is a perfect example of how copyright owners are being over vigilant and/or how section of the DMCA are being misread.






