from http://prince.org/msg/7/244479?&pg=19#msg_5030822 (09/19/07)

Remember when we first heard this? Most of us blamed Universal. Now we know who to blame, eh? Has Prince gone too far??

From: http://www.eff.org/legal/…universal/

Stephanie Lenz’s 29-second recording shows her son bouncing along to the Prince song “Let’s Go Crazy,” which is heard playing in the background. Lenz uploaded the home video to YouTube in February to share it with her family and friends.

But last month, YouTube informed Lenz that it had removed the video from its website after Universal claimed that the recording infringed a copyright controlled by the music company. Under federal copyright law, a mere allegation of copyright infringement can result in the removal of content from the Internet.

“Copyright holders [e.g. Prince] should be held accountable when they undermine non-infringing, fair uses like this [YouTube] video.”

Last May, UMPG’s parent company, Universal Music Group, sent a baseless copyright takedown demand to YouTube for a video podcast by political blogger Michelle Malkin. That video was quickly reposted after Malkin fought back.

“Copyright abuse can shut down online artists [some artists WANT their music/videos on YouTube — leave ‘em alone!], political analysts, or — as in this case — ordinary families who simply want to share snippets of their day-to-day lives,” said EFF Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. “Universal [and Prince] must stop making groundless infringement claims that trample on fair use and free speech.”

The current action is nothing more than a petty move by somebody who was once deeply respected but is fast becoming a diva for no reason.

So whats his grip - he doesnt like the negative fan reviews? Well all I can say to that is the fans are teh biggets mirro you are ever going to look into…if tehy say what you ar edoing is no good then its no good (no 2 ways about it - THEY do make the distinction between good and bad), if you dont like bad reviews put more effort in and finally - if you want unofficial (but HIGHLY successful) sites to stop in favour of your own site then simply pull your finger out - give soemthing back and not just pop your head up when you want some money

Childhood 101 - The only way to beat a bully is to stand up to him!

I about choked reading about the “Electric Slide” choreographer…but I guess if you “invented it” you’d be proud of it.

Hopefully, something good will come of this. Oh wait, videos w/ the Electric Slide in them were taken down…that’s a good start.

I keed…

Hopefully, something REALLY good will come of all this.