One afternoon you are hanging out with your family. Music is playing in the background and you are all enjoying yourselves. When a Taylor Swift song comes on your adorable daughter starts dancing and singing along.

It’s just all too cute so you whip out your phone, take a short video of it, and post it online. You get lots of likes and comments that afternoon, but after a couple of weeks you forget about it.

Then you get an email. The email tells you that your video has been removed. And that it was removed because someone submitted a DMCA takedown notice.

This is pretty much what happened to Stephanie Lenz in 2007. Stephanie posted a video of her 13-month-old son pushing a toy while a Prince song was playing. (Click here if you want to see the video.)

In a David v. Goliath fight, she pushed back against the record company. And with the support of Electronic Frontier Foundation, she sued them. The heart of the lawsuit was if it was appropriate for them to submit a DMCA takedown notice on her video. And last month, the court agreed with her that this was a misuse of the DMCA takedown notice procedure.

The court said that before sending a DMCA takedown notice you must consider fair use.

What is fair use?

To determine if something is or isn’t fair use we want to examine:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial or non-commercial 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
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyright

Fair use is one of the most complex copyright topics. Which is why I created a visual process that breaks down fair use.

So what does that mean for you?

I’ve always encouraged you to think about fair use before sending a DMCA takedown notice. But now you are required to.

Which means you’ve now got one extra step before hitting send. And that is evaluating if their use of your content is likely fair use.

This analysis doesn’t need to be complex. It could be a:

• simple worksheet
• column on your DMCA takedown notice tracking spreadsheet
• email to yourself/team member
• note in Evernote

You just need to write down why you don’t think this particular use is fair use.

5 steps to sending a DMCA takedown notice

This means you should update your DMCA takedown notice system to include these five steps:

1. determine if their use is likely fair use and if not, write down why you don’t think it is
2. take screenshots of the infringing site
3. locate the website’s host
4. determine the Copyright Agent
5. draft your takedown notice

Get a DMCA Takedown Notice Letter Template

Want help making sure your DMCA Takedown Notice includes all the required elements? Hit a roadblock completing these four steps?

Then join us in the artist’s Courtyard and not only get a Google Docs DMCA Template but get access to a private 24/7 community of creatives and a library of 20+ checklists, templates, and quick videos helping you run your creative business professionally + legally.

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There is one primary reason for documenting your analysis: money.

If you fail to record why it’s not fair use and submit a notice, you might be responsible for a big fat bill. And that is because you might have to pay the attorney fees for the person you submitted a notice to.

How you can easily apply this today

• Read this article to help you get a better handle on what is and isn’t fair use.
• Get access to a DMCA Takedown notice template (and step-by-step instructions) and 20+ checklists, templates, and quick videos helping you run your creative business professionally + legally here.

If you are scaling a creative business, you already know the legal side matters. The problem is finding the time to handle it properly, so it often gets pushed to the side.

When that happens, small details get missed and expectations are not as clear as they should be. Clients have questions. Boundaries get tested. And suddenly, you are spending time fixing issues that could have been handled up front.

I am Kiff, a legal strategist for creatives and a licensed attorney with 15+ years of experience helping photographers, designers, and illustrators protect and grow their businesses with clear contracts and client systems.

Each Friday, I send one focused, jargon-free legal task you can complete in 15 to 30 minutes. So you can reduce client friction, protect your work, and keep your business running smoothly without adding more to your plate.

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