• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, March 2, 2007

Several weeks ago, Viacom famously demanded that YouTube purge a trove of clips from the site -- including some clips not actually owned by the media company, such as a group of friends having dinner at Somerville, Mass.-restaurant Redbones.

As it turns out, Viacom isn't the only one to wrongly ask for clips' removal from YouTube. Richard Silver of Groton, Conn., self-described inventor of the "Electric Slide" dance steps, also recently demanded that YouTube take down a clip showing audience members at a concert performing the dance, according to a new lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The EFF alleges that Silver recently demanded that YouTube delete a video posted by Kyle Machulis that shows concert-goers dancing at a San Francisco performance of the band Sublevel 3. Machulis allegedly maintains that he created and copyrighted the Electric Slide steps, according to the EFF.

Silver's claim might appear laughable, but YouTube likely had no choice other than to remove the clip pending an investigation, because the Digital Millenium Copyright Act arguably protects YouTube from copyright infringement liability as long as it takes down material upon request.

Meantime, the EFF is asking the court to declare that the clip doesn't violate copyright law for a host of reasons, not least of which is that the Electric Slide dance steps can't be copyrighted.

Correction: Tuesday's Just an Online Minute mistakenly listed The Weather Channel as a client of mobile ad firm Third Screen Media. The Weather Channel ended its relationship with Third Screen last year.