Idolator
Prince's efforts to "reclaim the Internet" are not sitting well with many of his fans, and three fansites devoted to the Purple One—stung by demands that they "cease and desist all use of photographs, images, lyrics, album covers and anything linked to Prince's likeness"—have joined forces to battle their idol in the court of public opinion. On Prince Fans United, the site's proprietors are saying that their use of many images not only is fair game under the fair use doctrine, it's probably not the best idea for Prince to antagonize people who actually like him, even if they aren't showing their appreciation for him by shelling out $3,121 for overpriced concert tickets. (Which may be why the site's name anagrams to "Prince F.U.")
Several of the largest web communities dedicated to the artist have received notices to cease and desist all use of photographs, images, lyrics, album covers and anything linked to Prince's likeness.
It is our opnion that these threats are not made in an attempt to enforce valid copyright as Prince alleges in his threats, rather we believe they are attempts to stifle all critical commentary about Prince. We strongly believe that such actions are in violation of the freedom of speech and should not be allowed. Prince claims that fansites are not allowed to present any artwork with Prince's likeness, to the extreme that he has demanded removal of fan's own photographs of their Prince inspired tattoos and their vehicles displaying Prince inspired license plates.
No idea what those Prince-inspired license plates could have had on them as far as direct references to the purple one, but the "Prince-inspired tattoo" request is probably more troubling; is scouring the Internet for people bearing tattoos of the Purple One the prelude to his legal team showing up at the offending fans' houses with a laser and a "licensed technician"?
Prince Fans United [Official site]
Comments
the only reasonable answer is that he's feeling a hit in the pocketbook the same as a lot of other wealthy, successful performers. he is trying to retain control of his trademarks but is doing so in the same way corporations do.
however, unlike them, he's taking pointless measures to curtail the freedoms of his fans to express how they feel about his work. it's a really sad display of ill will towards the people who have actually spent some money over the years supporting him.
i know he's a genius and i am a big fan of his music, but prince is notoriously a certifiable 100% asshole. those reading this may, with my permission, tell him i said so and that, if he doesn't like it, he can save us both a lot of lawyering by coming himself to kick my ass in person instead of sicking a bodyguard on me like the wuss that he is.
He obviously didn't learn anything from Metallica.
I don't know if anyone's noticed, but he's slightly odd.
I wonder what he'll do if his caricatured face turns up in a Danish cartoon.
Prince has been doing this since the late 90s when he sued a bunch of fan sites for doing this same thing.
my question is, why did people keep putting up the sites even after they knew how litigation happy the guy was? a lot of the people who run these sites have been active in the prince online community (which i used to be a big part of at one point) for over 10 years now, so they know how he operates.
they shoulda just shut their sites down and let him promote himself.
@brainchild: That was my exact thought! How could this have been a surprise after what happened to folks like Uptown in Sweden?
too much purplesaurus rex kool-aid
oh, and RIP Uptown... i'm still mad i never got my hands on a copy of their The Vault book.
erm.. nevermind... apparently they're still around and planning an updated version of The Vault :)
to paraphrase Kevin Smith from his "An Evening With..." DVD's -
Prince has been living in Prince-land for a looooong time.
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