Grooveshark

Why does Prince always think he can do whatever he wants?

First, he made himself into purely a symbol, and we had to refer to him as “The Artist Formally Known As Prince.”

Now, Prince is attacking his fans - the ones the support him through all his ridiculous requests. Prince and an army of lawyers are working to disband several large web communities dedicated to the pop star.

Several Web sites have received cease and desist notices to discontinue use of all photographs, images, lyrics, album covers and anything else Prince wants.

Prince’s representatives have requested that the fan sites provide them with “substantive details of the means by which you [the fan sites] propose to compensate our clients [Paisley Park Enterprises, NPG Records and Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG)] for damages…”

Three of the largest fan sites, www.housequake.com, www.princefams.com and www.prince.org have all come together to fight back against this injustice. These are the fans who have supported Prince’s career since the very beginning, nearly 30 years ago.

The site’s owners are hoping that Prince will step down, but in the event that he continues the threats, they made it clear that they will fight their position in the proper court of law.

All three owners note: Prince is entitled to control of his copyrights, it should be within the law. The law clearly provides for displaying of images of a celebrity’s likeness for newsworthy events or matters that are considered to be public interest. All three websites feel that the photographs and/or likeness displayed on their websites clearly fall within the public interest category. Additionally, the use of photographs is legal based on the fair use doctrine, i.e. the displaying of album cover art, or the collage headers created by website members using a variety of different photographs.

What do you think? If you’re favorite artist pulled a stunt like this, would you lost respect for them?

V[ia: PerezHilton.com]

Del.icio.us digg reddit

• Posted in All of The Rest