WEB SHERIFF
Protecting Your Rights on the Internet
Tel 44-(0)208-3238013
Fax 44-(0)208-3238080
websheriff@websheriff.com
www.websheriff.com

Hi Dan & Everyone,

Many thanks for your interesting story ... .. "My-Good-Fellow" (we hope that's British enough for you ?!) ... .. the point here is that How Do I and QueenSissy are correct - Prince actually has performers' rights in his stage and recorded performances and, as such, he's still entitled to pull these videos if he chooses to and regardless of whether or not he wrote the song.

There is a very interesting comparison to be drawn between Radiohead and Prince who, between them, probably represent the spectrum of artist opinion on the use of the internet. Some artists are very relaxed about the use of their rights on the net, whereas others are more protective, which, we'd suggest, is the whole point - it's the artist's decision (whichever way they lean) and no one else's.

We hope this clarifies the position for your readers.

All The Best,

WEB SHERIFF

I don't have a good international calling plan, otherwise I'd call the Sheriff in the UK to get to the bottom of who exactly is protecting my rights on the Internet, but is this whole operation one guy with a lot of time on his hands and a not-very-quick reaction time to Google Alerts? I'm fascinated by the personal touch. Oh, Web Sheriff, you're such a mystery. You haunt my dreams.

WEBSHERIFF's Activity [Idolator]

The artists are planning lawsuits both in the U.S. and in Sweden, said Lars Sandberg, a lawyer assigned to work on the Swedish side of the case.

"Work has been initiated to claim damages from those who are behind The Pirate Bay," Sandberg told The Associated Press. He confirmed reports in Swedish media that the artists would seek damages of millions of dollars.

While Prince is looking for damages from downloads of his entire catalog, the Village People have but one target: Unpaid-for downloads of "YMCA," the group's dancefloor-filling megahit. You'd think that they'd at least want people to pony up for "Sex Over The Phone," too, what with it being such a viral hit and all, but I guess it's all about the baby (dance) steps.

Prince and Village People to sue file-sharing site Pirate Bay: lawyer [AP via IHT; HT TorrentFreak, whose nauseating pro-TPB attitude isn't safe for lunch and whose super-homophobic comments are even less safe for your view of humanity]

The Web Sheriff managing director, John Giacobbi, said the extent of piracy online has become "ridiculous", spanning videos, music downloads, bootleg merchandise and unlicenced ringtones.

"99% of the stuff online is totally unauthorised," he told MediaGuardian.co.uk.

"Someone has to start somewhere and we know this will make a serious impact - a hell of a lot of artists are going to follow suit.

"We have to build a 21st century model for the entertainment industry."

Mr Giacobbi described YouTube, eBay and Pirate Bay as being in "the vanguard" of online piracy and said he hoped that once cases against those companies had been won, smaller sites would be more respectful.

In the past two weeks, Prince's legal representatives have requested the removal of around 2,000 illegally uploaded videos from YouTube.

Well, the taking down of Prince-related videos has actually been going on for quite some time—but the eBay mention makes me wonder if this crackdown on bootlegs going to extend into the record-fair realm as well, or if the Web Sheriff is only going to remain an excessively polite e-presence in offending sites' comments sections.

Prince seeks to 'reclaim the net' [Guardian]

DJ's label (Fat Possum) have allowed fans and bloggers to Almost Ready and Been There All The Time as promotional tracks and to give fans a flavour of the new album ... .. other tracks are, not unnaturally, being held back to release (the Pitchfork track being a special, temporary arrangement) ... .. hence some tracks being allowed and other not ... ... this is common practise amongst indie labels these days and we hope this answers your (and your readers) question.

In the circumstances, therefore, we're also obliged to ask you to remove your copy of We're Not Alone.

Well, first of all: Fine. We were taking "We're Not Alone" and the other Dinosaur Jr. MP3s down today anyway—we only keep most MP3s up for a week (an exception can be found here). But are we crazy for thinking it odd that an MP3, with no protection on it, can only be downloaded from one site—after all, if you're letting an unprotected audio file out in the wild, even for a limited time, shouldn't you expect it to thrive? Wouldn't that file not thriving be more worrisome to the people charged with promoting the band's music? (And wouldn't you want people who, say, don't read Pitchfork—and yes, they do exist—to maybe get exposed to the record as well?)

Anyway, we don't want to call shenanigans or anything; we just want to point out, like we did last week, that the idea of the "exclusive download" sounds sort of like the "MTV Exclusive" touting of the old days, except not really, because it's a lot easier to redistribute an MP3 than it was to redistribute a video in the pre-YouTube era, and because the idea of an "exclusive MP3" is somewhat oxymoronic. Did we say "somewhat"? We meant absolutely.

Earlier: Leak Of The Day, Part III: Dinosaur Jr Is Definitely Ready For A Comeback

Here's the letter as it was printed:

Web Sheriff
Protecting Your Rights on the Internet
Tel 44-(0)208-323 8013 / Fax 44-(0)208-323 8080
websheriff@websheriff.com www.websheriff.com

Dear Faronheit,

Kindly remove the unreleased Dinosaur Jr tracks from your site IMMEDIATELY, failing which - regrettably - a DMCA notification shall be forwarded to you and legal action by our clients' lawyers and the BPI / RIAA shall follow : naturally, however, we trust that such a course of action shall not prove to be necessary.

On behalf of the artist's label, we do appreciate that you are a fan of / are promoting Dinosaur Jr but, by the same token, you must also appreciate that, by posting a pirate copy of the album pre-release (or linking to a pirate copy of the album), you are potentially causing considerable damage and we are sure that you would not want to be held to be personally liable for all of the lost sales that could ensue.

We shall look forward to hearing from you BY RETURN.

Thank you for respecting the artist's creation and copyrights and, for your info, the label are making certain tracks from the forthcoming album available for free download from its own site.

As you will appreciate, this e-mail - containing, as it does, a position that is potentially prejudicial to our clients' open / formal position - is written on a without prejudice basis and, as such, all of our clients' accumulated, worldwide rights remain strictly reserved : please excuse this required formality.

With Thanks & Regards

WEB SHERIFF

It's very polite and apologetic; you can almost imagine Dudley Moore stammering it out to you. Anyway, what we don't know—and maybe some bloggers can fill us in—is whether the Sheriffs do this in lieu of emailing the site's administrators, or do it only when a formal C&D letter isn't acknowledged, or do it just because it's sort of fun for them to call people out in public. No matter what, you can still hear the Dino songs on the Hype Machine's pop-up player, so power to the people, etc.

Maybe Now It's Dinosaur Sr. [Faronheit]