Prince Fans Endure Purple Pain by Josh Grossberg
http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=e658ff46-b251-47fb-aa95-d
7238e10a113&sid=fd-hot2-txt
Why you wanna treat me so bad?
That's the question some die-hard Prince fans are asking after receiving
cease-and-desist letters from the Purple One's legal team, threatening to
shut down a trio of fansites unless they remove all photos, images, cover
art and lyrics related to the 49-year-old artist.
The lawsuit threats, part of a larger copyright crackdown launched on behalf
of the rocker, has led the devotees behind housequake.com, princefans.com
and prince.org to band together in revolt.
The sites' owners have formed Prince Fans United and have vowed to fight the
requests, labeling Prince's efforts "bullying tactics" to "stifle all
critical commentary about Prince" and a violation of their free-speech
rights.
"Prince claims that fansites are not allowed to present any artwork with
Prince's likeness, to the extent that he has demanded removal of fans' own
photographs of their Prince-inspired tattoos and their vehicles displaying
Prince-inspired license plates," says a statement at princefansunited.com.
The site goes on to call the legal notices "an injustice" to the "very fans
who have supported Prince's career, many since the very beginning."
The Webmasters claim their use of photographs and album cover art is covered
under the fair-use doctrine, and they hope that publicizing Prince's
draconian actions will force him to change his stance. Otherwise, they say
they are prepared to "defend their position in the proper court of law."
There was no immediate comment from Prince's representatives at his
Minneapolis-based Paisley Park studios.
But Web Sheriff, the U.K. firm the "Let's Go Crazy" singer hired to enforce
the copyright cleanup, denies allegations that Prince was deliberately
attacking his audience.
"At no time is Prince suing his fans, and this is not about freedom of
speech," John Giacobbi, Web Sheriff's managing director, told Reuters. "The
current issue is one between Prince's record label and three unofficial
Websites and relates to the use of Prince trademarks and photographs, many
of which are Prince's copyright."
A spokesman for Prince Fans United disputes those assertions, telling E!
Online the fansites are all run on a voluntarily basis, without commercial
intent.
"Web Sheriff's statement that Prince per se is not suing personally is a
technicality at best," the rep said. "Many of the photos are copyright[ed]
to the fans who posted them, many were provided to us directly by the
photographers with permission, many are copyrighted to record labels. We
have asked many times for them to identify which photos they believe
infringe their clients' rights but received only blanket replies to remove
all photos."
Prince's demands are way beyond the pale, because they "go further and
demand removal of his 'likeness,' including demands to disable search code
that allows users to search housequake.com for the term prince," the
spokesmann continued.
The round of cease-and-desist letters comes after Prince sicced his legal
team on YouTube when cell-phone video footage and photographs of his
21-night stand at London's O2 Arena last summer was posted online.
But the Web smackdown isn't sitting too well with fans.
"Such a very sad day," wrote someone called MoonSongs on the prince.org
message boards. "I can't even listen to his music right now. He will gain
control, as many here have correctly assessed, but the Princedom will be
quite a bit smaller with all of us gone."
"This current attack on fans and fansites seems to reverse a very positive
move he has made in what always seemed like an effort to more closely
embrace those fans. I might suggest if this isn't resolved shortly, that
drastic fan measures be taken to fight back," says an anonymous poster at
princefansunited.com, who went so far as to suggest a boycott of Prince
albums and shows.
Another fan was even more blunt: "Suggestion for another name for those
sharing these views: The Music Consumers formerly known as Prince Fans."
His Purpleness did have his defenders, however.
"Has it occurred 2 anyone that he may not see things in the same way as u?"
an anonymous poster wrote at princefans.com. "He created music. U listen 2
the music. That's it! Nuthin' more, nuthin less."
* Copyright 2007 E! Entertainment Television, Inc. All rights reserved.
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