This is a picture of Prince. Apparently, I am breaking the law by putting it on my website. Now, I don't even like Prince. Outside of perhaps Sign O'The Times and 1999 I think he's shit. Creepy and deluded and self-important and totally lacking in a quality filter. This is not a Prince fansite. I'm just printing his picture to draw attention to his lastest act of idiocy, which is to have his lawyers send cease and desist orders to three of his most loyal fansites, telling them they risk being taken to court if the don't take down all images of Prince, including his album sleeves and lyrics and anything linked to his freakish face, from their sites. The legal letter asked the fansites to provide "substantive details of the means by which you propose to compensate our clients [Paisley Park Entertainment Group, NPG Records and AEG] for damages." That's damages. We are talking about precisely the sort of website that helps perpetuate Prince's stock, encouraging interest in him and his records. We are also talking about an artist whose latest album was given away for free with the Mail On Sunday. If I was a fan of Prince, I'd be tearing up my membership card, wouldn't you?

A coalition of fans, Prince Fans United, representing housequake.com, princefans.com and prince.org, has been formed by the website organisers to fight back. (Apparenlty the legal ruling went as far as calling for the removal of pictures taken by fans of their Prince tattoos. We must assume he'll be going after these people personally next, and asking them to remove their skin, or propose to compensate Paisley Park Entertainment Group.)

Of course, it's possible that Prince has nothing to do with all this, but he must have the power to stop it. It's also possible that he's gone a bit mental in the nut, in which case we should be sympathetic. I stole the above picture from his official website, which, unless I'm very much mistaken, has been rebranded to help sell Prince perfume, called 3121. It smells of money, with a hint of self-delusion and moustache.

Come on then, Prince's lawyers. I'm ready for you.*


*In that, if they tell me to, I'll take down the whole blog entry, including the link to his stinking perfume advert.

Labels: internet, music, Prince