Today's Music News

Prince threatens fans

Singer claims breach of copyright

07 Nov 07 - Prince is watching you. According to reports the singer has been monitoring the web recently and is now threatening to sue thousands of his fans over breach of copyright for posting songs, photographs and images on websites.

Lawyers for the singer have sent a letter asking all the biggest internet fansites to remove all material linked to the artist.

In the document he asks the websites to provide "substantive details of the means by which you propose to compensate our clients (Paisley Park Entertainment Group, NPG Records and AEG) for damages".

The singer scans the sites from his studio in Paisley Park, Minneapolis.

Many of the website administrators are fighting back now and have formed a coalition named Prince Fans United.

The group, which represents the sites Housequake.com, Princefans.com and Prince.org say they would contest the action on the grounds that it was an attempt to "stifle all critical commentary about Prince".

Nicola Slade, editor of the Record of the Day, spoke to 6 Music and said it was bad form for Prince to do this:

“There might be a back lash against him especially amongst some his hardcore fans, but I think if he was to put out any new material, then it wouldn’t necessarily prevent people buying his records.”

Adrian Larkin

Bookmark with:

What are these?

Have your say

Comments so far

DMarquelle, Princeton, NJ
Prince, look past the bugs of the windshield, see what is real in front of you before ....

Billy, Kent
I'm with Prince on this one! Many seem to be blowing this out of all proportion. This is just Prince being Prince and I have great respect for him because of it - he seems to know no fear.If Prince wasn't like this he would be as big, overblown and exploited as MJ is and has been over the years. Prince takes control of his image and output at what ever cost. I think people just don't seem to understand that he has a different outlook than most people.

Carl Harvey, Saffron Walden, Essex
My wife and I went to see Prince at the O2 recently and spent the whole show looking at his back. I think it's a ripoff selling ticket that are behind the stage. Maybe he ought to keep an eye on how his fans are being ripped off by him as much as he does making sure he doesn't get ripped off by his fans.

Andrew, Sydney
Dave from Colchester,If you had snap shots taken of you bathing topless for instance, and these said images were displayed about the internet for anyone to view, would you still feel the same way?I doubt it!

Dave, Colchester
Someone should introduce Prince and all the people getting overexcited about this to the concepts of "fair use" and "fair dealing". Basically his demands are legally unenforceable, or at the very least prohibitively moot.