Thursday, September 20, 2007

Prince gets sue-happy again

Hollywood Rag reports:
Prince Wants To Sue YouTube, Google, eBay, etc…...

Prince is to sue YouTube - in a bid "to reclaim his art on the internet".
The 'Purple Rain' singer is launching legal action against Google Inc. - who own the video-sharing website - for copyright infringement, in an effort to end the unauthorized use of clips of his performances and music videos.
A statement released on the star's behalf, said: "Prince believes that as an artist, the music rights must remain with the artist and copyrights should be protected across the board."
The pop superstar added that he could not accept YouTube had no control over what clips were posted on the site.
The statement continued: "YouTube are clearly able to filter porn and pedophile material but appear to choose not to filter out the unauthorized music and film content which is core to their business success."
YouTube insists it will work with the artist to monitor what music content appears on the site.
The website's chief lawyer, Zahavah Levine, said: "Most content owners understand that we respect copyrights, we work every day to help them manage their content, and we are developing state-of-the-art tools to let them do that even better."
Prince also plans to sue online auctioneers eBay and Pirate Bay, who are accused of encouraging music piracy.
The 'Controversy' singer has instructed Web Sheriff, a British-based company specializing in policing the internet for pirated content, to act on his behalf.
John Giacobbi, managing director of Web Sheriff, said: "Prince's actions are a brave and pioneering step to challenge the status quo and hand control over internet rights back to the artists."
Just as long as he doesn't go after my favorite file-sharing service, which is mercifully still below the radar and shall remain nameless. Anyway, that's week-old news. I just needed an excuse to post this pic.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

----------------
Now playing:
Chaka Khan - Sign 'O' The Times