...With Liberty and Justice for All

Just as Greek philosophers contemplated the meaning of justice and emphasized its role in personal and societal ethics, the founding fathers of America believed that freedom and justice should be one of the cornerstones of their new nation. And in modern day nations, justice is ensured through the use of laws and the court system. However, there must be a balance between freedoms and laws because in most cases, freedoms end where the limits of the law begin.

This is precisely the case here in Lenz vs. Universal where the freedoms of fair use and the ability to create home videos for personal use tread the murky boundary with the law, the hand of justice, that prevents the stealing and inappropriate use of copyrighted material. So ethically speaking, which side is more justified in their argument? Laws exist to prevent injustices from occuring, but when viewed from an ethical and moral standpoint, did an injustice take place with Lenz's creation of the home video?

Normally when we think of stealing and taking another's property, the basic reasoning behind its wrongness is that the other person is losing something. Either the person being stolen from would no longer have that object which they still have a need for, or the original object would lose some of its potential value if a copy were taken. In this case, what does Prince or Universal lose?

Arguably nothing at all because they still hold the rights and the original song, and nobody who would have paid for either the song itself or the rights to that song would suddenly choose not to pay after seeing the video in question. The song is barely discernible in the background and the original intention of the video was for personal use only (for the entertainment of just family and friends). This video holds no legitimate market value that Universal can base its claim off of. If anything, viewers could be intrigued by that small chunk of song in the background, investigate, and ultimately decide to purchase the song or the album, leading to more revenue for Universal.

On the basis of ethics, there is no reason that the video should ever need to be taken down or violate any laws and on the basis of practicality, Universal should never have attacked it due to its potential for creating more revenue. With their reputation already damaged and legal action pending against them, Universal is now mired in a lose-lose situation.