Did Lenz Waive Attorney-Client Privelege In Talking About Her Dancing Baby Case?

from the that-seems-unfortunate dept

We just recently spoke about the latest filings in Stephanie Lenz's lawsuit against Universal Music for issuing a takedown for her video of her toddler dancing to 29-seconds of a Prince song. A court has already declared that Universal Music should take fair use into account, but Universal Music is now claiming that it did take fair use into account, and it did not believe that the use of the music in this video was fair use: Part of Universal's argument is that even Lenz and her lawyers at the EFF didn't think it was fair use. Some of this is based on public statements by Lenz. What I had missed at the time was that a magistrate judge had already decided that Lenz had waived her attorney-client privileges by talking about the communications with others. Lenz had discussed what the lawyers had said over emails, in Google Talk chats and on her blog. Because of that, the judge felt that she had given up attorney-client privilege and ordered the EFF to turn over communications it had previously refused to under a claim of attorney-client privilege. I can see how the information she revealed publicly on her blog may be admissible, but private emails and chats seem a bit extreme. Beyond that, just because she talked about some things they said, doesn't mean that the rest should be revealed.

The EFF, in response, is asking the court to overturn that ruling, stating that Lenz's public comments covered public information and did not amount to a waiver of attorney-client privilege. You can see the EFF's full response after the jump. No matter which side of the case you support, this is a separate and important issue. Talking about some aspects of your case online should not mean you waive your attorney-client privileges on communications. We should encourage public discussion of important aspects of legal cases, not totally scare off participants by thinking they could lose such important protections as attorney-client privilege if they talk too much.

Filed Under: attorney client privelege, stephanie lenz
Companies: eff, universal music