Prince Picketing
His Fans
Prince Sues Fans
November 8. 2007
Prince
Prince is suing his fans for copyright
infringement. No disrespect intended to him, but I don’t think it is a good
move. I can understand if a fan site hosted full song downloads, which is
unlawful if the works were not to be distributed as free, but to sue your fans
for posting album covers (which can qualify as "fair use" for discussion
purposes under the Copyright Act) and lyrics (which in Prince’s favor is
protected by Copyright Law) is not a good idea.
I like lyric sites, as I think they are useful
and people enjoy reading them. I also like a nice album cover. I enjoy good
artist promo photos as well. It's all apart of the process.
Prince
Therefore, unless a site illegally posts an
entire album download or song download, A/K/A artists’ bread and butter, or the
full contents of a photo book (rather than just a pic or two as a promotional
excerpt), artists should give them a break.
Overall, they don’t mean any harm, and these are
the people that buy your work. Furthermore, when you look at the sheer amount of
time and effort people put into creating and maintaining fan sites, they really
don’t deserve that.
“PRINCE FANS FIGHT
BACK AGAINST ATTACKS”
In an extraordinary,
but not unfamiliar move, the rock legend Prince is using an army of lawyers to
launch attacks on his own fans. 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
belief 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...
http://www.princefansunited.com
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