The Artist Taking On Musical Piracy



(c) The Associated Press



By David Bauder



NEW YORK (AP) -- The Artist has gone on a legal offensive against Web sites
devoted to him. At least one site has responded by going after his symbol.



The copyright and trademark infringement lawsuits, filed in February against
nine Web sites, accuse them of selling bootlegged recordings by the former
Prince and offering access to downloads of his songs.



Through the format known as MP3, the selling and trading of music downloaded
through computers has become wildly popular. It has made the music industry,
and some artists, nervous because of a perceived threat to the CD and tape
market.



``The Artist clearly wants to stop unauthorized distribution of his music,''
said Michael Elkin, his attorney. ``The material that he puts out is the
material that he selects. People should not be permitted to release product
without his consent.''



In trying to stop the Web sites' activities, the Artist has also alleged
unauthorized use of photographs, sales of books and a CD-ROM. He also said
people have been infringing upon his trademark of the odd symbol that he has
used as his name since 1993.



One defendant, Uptown Productions, filed a countersuit last week that
claimed
the Artist had no right to trademark his symbol. The former Prince can't
claim unauthorized use because he frequently encouraged people to use it as
a
substitute for his name, said the company, which operates a Web site and
distributes a fan magazine.



Uptown also claims the symbol is in the public domain since it's a copy of
an
ancient symbol for soapstone.



Paul Rapp, the lawyer who represents Uptown, said he believed the Artist was
going on the attack to chill competition because he wanted to put out a fan
magazine of his own.



``We really just want to be left alone,'' he said.



AP-NY-04-14-99 1203EDT