Claims copyright infringement even though the song doesn’t belong to him.
Prince, or the “artist formerly known as,” or whatever it is that he calls himself these days, continues to have an oddly myopic and self-serving attitude when it comes to “his” music. Despite having earned tens of millions of dollars during a career that stretches back to the early 1980′s, he still sets his lawyers loose on anybody or anything that makes his music available outside of his official NPGMusic site.
For it was late last year that he hired WebSheriff, the UK-based anti-piracy organization, to go after YouTube, eBay, and BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay for allegedly encouraging copyright violations in order to “reclaim the Internet.”
Since then YouTube and eBay have been quick to respond to any requests by his record label, NPG Records, to remove material it deems copyright infringing. The Pirate Bay, on the other hand, shrugged it off in their usual fashion.
Wrote Brokep on The Pirate Bay blog:
Yesterday we got informed that The artist formerly known as The artist formerly known as Prince is going to sue us. Using web sheriff! Good news, maybe we get some updates for the legal threats page. And good luck Mr Son of a King, you probably just lost a lot of your fans.
So the irony was palpable recently when Prince demanded hat a video of him covering Radiohead’s “Creep” live at the recent Coachella music festival be taken down. Is it really copyright infringement if you’re copying somebody else’s work in the first place?
Radiohead, who is hands down the total opposite of Prince, having in fact embraced donation-based digital downloads of its recent “In Rainbows” album, were amazed that Prince would be so bold as to block a video of a song that isn’t even his.
“Really? He’s blocked it?” asked Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke after unsuccessfully trying to view the video for himself. “Surely we should block it. Hang on a moment.” Yorke added, “Well, tell him to unblock it. It’s our … song.”
I guess in Prince’s world, where the “rain is purple,” he’s the king of his content even though it’s been borrowed from others.
**NOTE: Managed to find a copy up on Daily Motion for those interested.**
I've been interested in P2P since the early, high-flying days of Napster and KaZaA. I believe that analog copyright laws are ill-suited to the digital age, and that art and culture shouldn't be subject to the whims of international entertainment industry conglomerates. Twitter | Google Plus
Spoiled brat. End of post.
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