Prince to sue Youtube, eBay
2007-09-14 07:15
London - US pop star Prince plans
to sue YouTube and other major websites for unauthorised use of
his music in a bid to "reclaim his art on the internet".
The man behind hit songs Purple Rain, 1999 and When
Doves Cry said on Thursday that YouTube could not argue that it had no control over which videos users posted on its site.
"YouTube ... are clearly able (to) filter porn and
paedophile material but appear to choose not to filter out the
unauthorised music and film content which is core to their
business success," a statement said.
YouTube did not immediately reply to questions e-mailed to
its press room.
In addition to YouTube, Prince also plans legal action
against online auctioneer eBay and Pirate Bay, a site accused by
Hollywood and the music industry as being a major source of
music and film piracy.
The legal action is the latest bid by the music industry to
wrest back control over content in an age where file sharing,
cellphones and video sites make enforcing copyright
increasingly difficult.
But it is believed to be rare for an individual artist of
Prince's stature to take on popular websites, while some
up-and-coming performers actually encourage online file sharing
to create a fan base and buzz around a record.
"Prince strongly believes artists as the creators and owners
of their music need to reclaim their art," the statement added.
"These actions mark a historic moment for music artists in
terms of the battle to regain control of their rights on the
internet."
British company Web Sheriff has been hired to help
co-ordinate the action.
"In the last couple of weeks we have directly removed
approximately 2 000 Prince videos from YouTube," said Web
Sheriff managing director John Giacobbi.
"The problem is that one can reduce it to zero and then the
next day there will be 100 or 500 or whatever. This carries on
ad nauseam at Prince's expense," he told Reuters.
He said his company had also removed around 300 items from
eBay, where whole lines of pirated goods trading on Prince's
name had appeared, including clocks, socks, mugs and key rings.
Prince's latest initiative is likely to please record
industry executives and music retailers, who have not always
seen eye-to-eye with the 49-year-old.
He has referred to the record industry as "the speculation
business" and gave away copies of his new album "Planet Earth"
for free with a British Sunday newspaper.