Comments on: Prince lashes out at YouTube, eBay and The Pirate Bay

Musician intends to win back control of his copyright on the Web.

[Renegade Knight]

Idiot

I've just discoved You Tube as a great way to figure out who does what song so I can buy the freaking song. Not only that but other songs that I like but didn't even know about by that artist.

Bite the hand buddy, bite the hand.

[thenet411]

Prince has lost touch with reality

Prince is the ultimate poster child for moronic celebrities who have been coddled into thinking that they can have anything they want. There is a documented incident where he actually wanted a camel brought to his hotel room in Minnesota at 3 in the morning.

He has lost his grip on reality and this stunt is yet another example of it.

[rfelgueiras]

really, where?

where's that link? Saying something is documented, doesn't mean
it is.

[Machaira]

What grip?

This guy has always been a little off. We had a photo shoot with
him once. We got there at 8pm to get set up for a scheduled 9
o'clock shoot and he didn't show up till about 3am. His assistant
kept insisting that we not look him in the eyes and never speak to
him directly. That was the last time I ever worked with him.
Completely disrespectful and just plain weird.

[Yticilef]

I agree.

[Fat Drunk and Stupid]

If Prince really cared about his IP

If Prince really cared about his intellectual property then he could just go back to using that name that nobody could either spell or say.

Who could possibly use the Internet to search for any of the content that was released under his previous name?

This does, however, make for great publicity. I mean... if you don't have any talent and aren't putting out anything that anyone wants to listen to then the best way to get your name in the media is to either enter a limo without any underwear on or sue someone.

Good choice man! Good choice.

[Yticilef]

lol

[gsmiller88]

Is Prince siding with the record producers?!

Is this the same Prince from back in the day who change his name
to "the artist formally known as Prince" because he got in a spat
with his record company? And now he's doing the same tactics as
the record companies!?!? For shame, for shame...

One side note, Prince: You don't own that content, the record
company does ;)

[ifiredmyboss.com]

U R Wrong

Actually Prince owns most of his content. The record companies mostly just have distribtution deals with him.

[ask_alex]

i have followed prince from day one and its very clear to me that you dont understand the whole picture , if your compelled enough to leave a message like this , then why not get some facts first ? this should not be seen as an attack on you , just some helpfull advice. i think it would be best for you to make educated discissions based on knowledge.. ciao

[rfelgueiras]

Are you guys for real?

Prince was given a Webby for being an internet pioneer as
referred to music. When studios he worked with wouldn't look
towards the internet as a way to capitalize on the medium, he
had his own online store created. This was two years before
iTunes and the others so as to provide a means to give his fans
(and there are lots of us) an opportunity to cop a track that he
may have cut that weekend, without having to go through
Record Label red tape. I think he has a reason to be concerned if
people are making money off of him.

Also...

He's not some artist dying to get his stuff heard like some indy
artist. He has a catalogue spanning well over 25 years, over 100
Million albums sold and several hundred songs released. Not
talented? He started teaching _himself_ to play piano at 4 and
has mastered 22 Instruments in his lifetime. He also writes,
performs, produces and composes ALL of his own music as well
as for others. Tell me how many of the "talented" artists out
right now that can even come close. Anyone? Didn't think so.

[Speiler9]

Really had it too easy...

Well said. People who have worked their **** off like Prince has have
a right to the income from their creative works. If nothing was done
to chase copyright breakers then where would we be? Already
smaller bands are being pushed off the edge of the income ladder
by everyone pirating their material, internet publicity doesn't
always work in their favour, and the 'prince'iple is the same
whether you are starting out or a huge star - unfettered copyright
theft is wrong. The fact that record companies overcharge all the
time and partly create the problem is a different matter.

[skeptik]

but what about...

"Tell me how many of the "talented" artists out
right now that can even come close."

Well, there's Brittney...

Oh nevermind, I just found out she's the dancing face (read T&A) for a whole team of talented writers and musicians. Imagine my shock!
lol

[Fifilabond]

Prince has every right to do what the hell he likes with his own work. The idiot who thinks he has no talent and puts nothing out is just plain clueless. He has been helping new bands to make it since most of you who given him negative comments were still in nappies. He is not a greedy artist far from it he is just doing his own thing and if you don't like it lay off you are not worthy of listening to his stuff!!!

[Yticilef]

Yes, but he's a blatant imitator of Sly Stone, and Little Richard (in the hair/clothes department if not singing). Definitely a Sly imitator, so much that it's pathetic.

[Dleon84]

ISSUES!

PRINCE, GROW UP! If you really believe these companies promote
copyright infringement then you have issues. Money hungry
thief. In the 80's people made tapes and distributed them - yet
nobody complained. If anything, music duplication was
encouraged to have people hear the music and buy it. I
download music from ThePirateBay, and if it blows then I won't
buy it and I delete it. However, if it is worth my cash then I
purchase it. I know most don't do such, but why limit those who
would rather try the product before a purchase? Ever heard of
trial-mode software? Why invest in a CD you CAN'T return?
OOhhh that's right, because they probably opened it and burned
it. Well then I think we're stuck with torrent sites.

[SahraDaisy]

Prince happy with BMI taking 75 percent?

Prince happy with BMI taking 75 percent? If the three big rights licensing companies didn't overcharge, and BMI probably by far the worst, YouTube probably wouldn't be so reluctant to sign up. These companies have it set up so they are your business partner when you're doing well but your debt collector when you're failing. They want to charge a big license fee on top of getting paid for streaming time on top of getting a percentage of your gross revenue. At least one wants to be paid anytime someone visits a page with music, even if they don't play any. I think they even get paid if the music played is public domain. There's no oversight to these companies. Their CEO's must be making hundreds of millions. What are they doing in their spare time that they need all that money? Nothing good I'm sure.

[pingpong111]

Finally, someone with self-respect stands up!

Rather than give away the products of his mind and efforts, like so many of these scabs, like Cory Doctorow who runs BoingBoing.com, Prince realizes that his only value to the world is his talent and art, and that he deserves every penny he can earn from selling said art and talent. It's his, and it's not yours and if you steal it, then you are an immoral thief and you've just demeaned yourself as a human being. Even if he wants to spend that money to fly his private jet to Istanbul for breakfast, that excess trickles down to jobs and more nice things for everyone who earns money building that plane and flying him there. That's how an economy works. A commune where everyone shares is the most unfair place in the world, where two people work and 20 beg and sleep.

[galacticgufus]

reply to prince

hi there, prince,

actually, you don't have talent or art and the rubbish you make has no value to the world -- certainly it doesn't fulfil the constitutional standard of 'useful arts', as it is of no use. a commune where two work and twenty beg might indeed be unfair, but if that's the case then perhaps you ought to get a job and stop supporting yourself by suing information networks that allow people to enjoy their constitutional rights of self expression. you need to face it. people listened to you only because you had a monopoly on the record shops and radio stations. we have an alternative now, and that makes you a hasbeen. i saw an ad or something for your album 'freedom' once; well unfortunately for you, it's us who are now free. if you are so offended by a small fragment of your 'nonintellectual nonproperty' being caught in a homevideo of someone's baby dancing, then don't put it on the airwaves to invade our homes. better yet, do us a favour and stop recording period -- fade into oblivion where you belong.

[SahraDaisy]

Licensing Companies the Problem

The artists aren't getting what they should when the licensing rights companies take 75 percent. And YouTube will be forced to sign with all three. These companies will use the money to buy politicians. Just like the oil companies have used their money to buy politicians. That money has bought politicians to start the war in Iraq and keep it going so that the oil companies can steal Iraqi oil, which just happens to be the world's third largest and easiest extractable supply.

Yeah they'll buy private planes for themselves, which will create a few jobs.

[Yog Sothoth]

Uhhhh

You're an idiot. War for Oil, right?

Oh, and 9/11 was an inside job.

Rosie O'Donnel proved it! That's the ticket.

[Troll Hard]

Way to go Prince, sue your fans

after all it worked out so well for Metallica when they sued their fans.

There was a woman who recorded her baby dancing to one of the Superbowl halftime shows that Prince sang at. She posted the video on Youtube, but Prince sued Youtube and sued her to remove the video because it contained part of one of his songs.

Prince is a slimeball, he could have used that video to promote himself and his music, that even a baby can enjoy. It seems all Prince cares about is the money, not the fans. Say it isn't so Prince!

Anyone ever recall what happened to "Fair Use"? It seems to have died when Clinton and a Democratic majority of Congress passed that DMCA law that got rid of the "Fair Use" of copyrighted material and gave media companies the rights to install rootkits (like Sony does) on our computer systems to make sure we actually bought the songs we listen to on our system. We were betrayed, and lost our rights and freedoms in the process.

[Yticilef]

What a jackass. Anyone so insecure isn't really that talented.

[krythdragoon]

To all those who think this is a GOOD thing...

...
Are you ****ing kidding me?

You really think that Prince is simply protecting his rights by sueing a mother who wanted to show off her creative savvy? You really think that he wants to uphold intellectual property by visciously going after fans who want to use clips of songs for background music for homemade videos?

I say, again,...ARE YOU ****ING KIDDING ME???

All he's doing is simply pushing those people who appreciate his work enough to use in their own productions. It's not as if they're trying to parade his music around as their own. Prince is easily recognizable and someone who tried to misrepresent would be easily found out.

And the people who he claims to be going after. The illegal downloaders. They know what they're doing is illegal. One more time, THEY KNOW THAT IT'S ILLEGAL. If they knew that when they downloaded before, then they'll probably do it again. Besides, I've seen people who do this and they are WAY smarter than whoever Prince has hired to do this. Believe me, the people who've been downloading illegally will keep right on doing it.

Think about what's really going on here. The labels behind Prince and these other stars are scared because this is something that they have little to no control over. So they cry copyright infringement and hope that'll stop them. If these sites were distributing the content, then I'd understand. But all they're doing is displaying USER-CREATED content that happens to use reduced-quality clips. They aren't trying to take credit for others work-just displaying their budding artistic talents.

All this can be solved by a little something you've probably learned in high school: CITING SOURCES. If YouTube wanted to, it could probably make it so people had to include a credits page that cites where they got their music from. (which most people do anyway) This would solve a lot of problems.

From personal experience, I've heard something on YouTube that I thought was really good. I've gone on to iTunes and bought it from there. I do buy music and content legally-and so do most people.

All this will do is push away fans and make people dislike Prince and his music. Period.

[Fifilabond]

No it won't ask any Prince fan. You are wrong sorry. We like him just the way he is!

[laxmanchip]

What happened to freedom of expression?

Apparently I'm not allowed to point out the obvious on CNET blogs because my comments are being removed because they are "offensive".

Wow...

[C.K.C.]

yea right

Rock star my a**

[Willie Winkie]

Eat mule dung Prince (AKA the artist formerly known as tallented)

The Pirate Bay will laugh at your suit (much the way the rest of the world laughs at music sung by a midget.) So stomp your little feet and and cry about how "unfair" it is to lose some of the ridiculously high compensation you earn for acting like an effeminate oompha-loompha.

[GuardBoy98]

Prince who?

Do we need to remove every bit of pirated Prince material from the internet to prove to him that people STILL won't buy his music? Prince became irrelevant a long time ago. And we all know that, if anything, YouTube and other sites only benefit artists.

[e4bree]

Lack of knowledge always shows . . .

If you don't like Prince, or are unaware of his musical genius (just read some of the other entries here for the background details) just say so. Your very very youthful limited exposure and knowledge of the industry shows in your comments. Produced and producing many other artist, plays 22 instruments, composes music that combines, transcends, and expands across many genres. True musicians who may not even have a natural interest or appeal to his style of music, respect and acknowledge his pure talent; as apposed to some of the more often than not fabricated~digitized~ commercialized performers packaged to appeal to the lowest common denominator. The Large venue national and international concerts tours he did within the last 4 years practically all sold out within days. It just humors me when a Lack of knowledge (or lack of interest- which is it?), or just dislike(it's ok, to each his own. Just say so) parades as an informed authority. ~~~~ just my 2 cents.

[Yticilef]

Without Sly Stone, there would be no Prince. Without Little Richard, there would be no Prince. Jesse Jackson is better than Prince, imho -- he's just not very original. All flash -- and genius? Excuse me, but he's not fit to carry Sly Stone's bags in the genius department. Sly was, and is an original musical genius, who has affected music and popular culture in ways immeasurable. The BEST act at Woodstock, with the possible exception of Hendrix, but then Hendrix didn't have them dancing at 2am, and on through the night, like Sly did.

[starsboreme]

Beat it

Go away Prince and stay there. I am confident that there will be a backlash on this matter that will sink this dudes sunken ship.

[dburr13]

Who is Prince?

Thanks to the Lo-Fi copies of Prince videos on YouTube...a whole new generation has a chance to find out who prince is...Without such promotion...artists from the very recent past could be forgotten...Now if some kid likes the grainy video he sees on YouTube...He just might go and buy a Prince CD or video collection...Maybe even buy a DVD of Prince's superb movie "Purple Rain"...

Seeing an classic artist on YouTube can only help to sell music...Music that otherwise would be forgotten...or worse yet...never known at all.

[dblagbro]

is it good, or is it bad? make up your mind!!!

"Their business model is built on making money off other people's creative work."
... So you're saying they are like record companies?

But record companies are suing for this stuff too.... so if you are a record company and you make money off this you are good, but if you're a technology company any you make money off this you're bad??!! Ok, so someone's going to argue "but record companies pay the artists" but that's BS because:
1- the record companies pay the artist pennies for every dollar they make.
2- the record companies are making money DIRECTLY from the SALE of music licensing whereas these companies are making money from advertising no matter what the content is.
3- these companies don't post the content themselves and they are only open forums, you might as well sue your local church if someone in your congregation copies a CD and gives it you you while walking into church on Sunday. What's next, is the phone company liable if someone else threatens you over their telephone lines? (if so, give me the record company's phone number :-).
4- the content on youtube is free so there is no profit from an artists work - unless you count the graphic artists who are working for these companies but they get paid for making the advertisements.

I think its time to sue prince as an english speaking person because he illegally stole my langague, pieced it together into his songs and is proffiting off my langague.... it makes about as much sence.

time for performers to be performers, be paid to perform, not for selling CD's... that's where the money is anyway and that's the only place you can protect your profit. since when does a performer get paid for selling 1's and 0's arrainged in a certain way on a CD / MP3, as a network engineer i think the money for a song should go to whoever wrote the codec that encodes to CD / MP3 because their creativity made the whole thing possible in the first place.... but they don't get paid after they've written the codec for GPU, why should a performer be paid after he's performed????!!!!

enough of this copyrighting a sine wave crap - if you're a performer, perform... i'll pay 50.00 a ticket to see you if your good... if you only good enough to be background music that i'm going to listen to 3 times a year, sorry but your music will be copied. if you make something good (which most crap put up by record companies using illegal tactics like paying playola to turn into a "hit" is NOT) then i'll pay for the experience of seeing it live - your free downloaded/stolen song is your advertisement for your performances and i'm not paying for others to advertise to me.

[Fifilabond]

Twit

[imacpwr]

The Greedy Hasbeen formally known as Prince..

Is this guy dumb or what..?!?! If it wasn't for sites like YouTube he'd never be able to launch a come-back. You think I'm going to go out now to buy a CD to support Prince's greed..? He's going to find himself standing outside alone in the Purple Rain..

[420trvlr]

Prince who?

He must be going broke to be so worried about loosing any money. You can't be a total freak forever.
I have nearly 1000 cd's all of which I have ripped onto my hard drive. And I don't care what any of them think. **** me off and I won't buy their albums.