Our artist's perspective on Prince's recent legal activity

Hi folks,

Firstly, big hi to my old school prince.org friends and new ones. Ive been away from the prince community for a while but Im still a huge fan and I still post here every now and then.

Ive only just read the news about Prince threatening some of the fan sites. Im very much in two minds about the situation. On the one hand, its Prince's music and image and its up to him how these are used. I know first hand how difficult protecting your music and image from theft online really is. Ive had my creations on the internet for some time now and I must admit that I dont always like to see them hosted on someone elses site, its a shame as this should really be a compliment.

At the same time, perhaps Prince (if it is his idea and not the new mob at Paisely Park) is being a little heavy handed. As, sadly, there are no fan sites out there for my creations, I cant really relate to the sheer scale of Prince's following and few artists can. But Im pretty sure, if I were lucky enough to have such a following, I would be very happy about it (even if a fansite's content is out of the recording artists control).

As an artist yourself, how do you feel about the current situation?

Lewis

C L O U D 9 M I S S I O N . C O M

N I N J A D R U M M I S T . C O M

cloud9mission, thanks so much for starting this topic. Just like you I'm in two minds about the situation. On the one hand, I am strongly for copyright protection, and giving respect to the original artist. But Prince is being silly about it... He has become a pop culture icon. His actions aren't about protecting his music, but his image... It's too late for that. If his image was such a concern, he shouldn't have become a pop star.

I'm afraid that as far as copyright protection is concerned, the wrong people are being chased... My primary concern is plagiarism. And plagiarism as far as I can see is being handled with kid gloves, especially when it comes to independent artists being ripped off. On the other hand, illegal downloaders get threatened with lawsuits... something doesn't seem right... As an artist I know how hurtful and damaging it is when someone takes your work and passes it off as his own... Afraid the legal system doesn't take this aspect into account... neither does most of the public.

It's just the raw dollars that seem to matter. So someone posting a segment of some tv show on youtube gets far more attention someone stealing someone else's music.

I don't see Prince's actions helping anyone that is really threatened by thieves on the internet. I mean he's getting worked up over images... Images that are actually getting him more money in the pocket. He didn't take those pictures... And the backlash against Prince is just going to get more people thinking that the internet should be a free for all where you're allowed to steal other people's work.

My perspective on that is as follows.

It seems likely to me that the man is simply applying an approach to bussiness that he had pre-internet explosion.

He has always been known for his pursuit of artistic freedom.

Artistic freedom has different aspects to it. There is the discipline that instrument proficiency requires. I think its fair to say he`s got that.

Then there is an artists approach to absorbing experiences and like a mother hen vomiting it back up to feed the chicks.

Then there is the battle against controlling corperate interests. Its this area that has spilled over. When Prince was producing albums for Warner bros. he was applauded and marvelled at for his masterfull single handedness. In order for him to get what he wanted he had to really stand up for himself.

Now the media has changed. Whereas before it was the big corperation who had to be shackeled because they were the ones in control of presentation and distribution, now the little guy has direct access to world wide distribution. I believe his lawyers have instructed him that ptresently it is virtually imposible to control what happends on the internet. So in order to gain as much control as possible your reach must exceed your grasp. So he comes down like a ton of purple bricks.

At the bottom of the lot is of course $$$. Although to his credit his free Planet Earth project goes a long way in showing his generosity.

Also he is a slight victim of his own proliferacy. Because he has produced such a large amount of music it means there is more to pirate and more to bootleg, more so than other artists and you might suppose that he would wonder as to why he should suffer theft, more than other artists, as a result of being more productive than other artists.

In my estimation I am not sure he has gauged the offset with what is going on in the world. That world governments (partiot act) and authorities are becoming more and more controlling and people are gradually losing thier rights. The internet has been a bulwark against these tendancies.

Hense its seems likely to me that although Prince is being a little bit to heavy handed here his basic intention is fair enough. Although his measure of what is happening in the world through politics and other machinations is a bit off.

I would say that he doesn`t realise to what extent his actions actually put him on the side of evil government. I think he may have lost sight a bit of the fact that the constitional law is not a measure of what is right and wrong among the people.

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[Edited 12/2/07 6:15am]
[Edited 12/2/07 6:15am]
[Edited 12/2/07 6:17am]

I think it's quite simple really. Once you've reached a level of success you're public domain to a degree. The degree would be, no, you can't sell my bootlegs and make your own t-shirts and sell them but there's zero you can do about someone getting your name tattooed on them. When you see that name from pop culture there should be no idea who that person is or what it's referencing, like any logo.

When you are a part of popular culture, to think that you can control every context in which your name is used is just insane. Infuckinsane.

If you didn't want to be popular or a part of pop culture then you should've ended your career before Purple Rain. The money you've made since, using the popularity of your name, are all the payment for the hell of being popular and a part of pop culture.

I think we should all should have a little popularity just to see if we mind people getting our name permanently put on their body to see what a hellish reality that is.