Prince Punishes Piracy, Copyright Infringers

Although he may appear fairly harmless, Prince is about to attack. That's right, the singer known for partying like it's 1999 and "Purple Rain" will soon flood controversial Internet sites YouTube and PirateBay with allegations of copyright infringement.

For those who don't know, Prince is a bit of a stickler when it comes to this kind of thing. Recently playing to screaming crowds at The 02 Arena in London, England, the artist banned fans from taking photos or recording video with their mobile phones. Since that probably didn't stop anyone from immediately posting such content on good 'ol YouTube, the artist is now taking a new approach.

Instead of nailing the fans, he'll just soak YouTube for some cash.

A representative for Prince told reporters that the musician "believes strongly that as an artist the music rights must remain with the artist and thus copyrights should be protected across the board. Very few artists have ever taken this kind of action over their rights. Yet, Prince has showed time and time again he is ready to challenge the system in new ways to put artists and music first." (Source: news.independent.co.uk)

Bold words for a guy (we assume) whose last hit was long before 1999.

Despite his relative absence from the limelight, Prince feels the obligation to spearhead such a movement. He has hired Web Sheriff, a company specializing in copyright issues and piracy, to take on YouTube and a few other sites, including auctioneers eBay and torrent PirateBay. Web Sheriff has recently had some success 'round these parts, having shut down a reported 300 eBay auctions. (Source: sci-tech-today.com)

As for YouTube, Prince and his lawyers believe the site secretly boasts the technology to prevent such copyright issues, but choose not to employ them. Prince's representative told the media that if YouTube can effectively weed out explicit and inappropriate videos, it should be able to do the same for unauthorized music, movies, and other media.

Talk about your party pooper.