of my 17 year old nephew playing the opening guitar part of Prince's song "Guitar." My nephew is learning to play guitar (has been for a few years) and he posted a short clip of himself trying to play the opening part. My nephew got a letter from Youtube that Prince/NPG/Universal claimed "copyright infringement."

Pathetic.

can you post that letter here?

Jesus H!, There's some great clips around of guitar heads paying tribute to P trax playing along [brilliantly in the case Mr.Telecaster!]. I am sure if your nephew played some Santana or Hendrix it would be better appreciated.

If anyone should have the right to take down a clip of the opening to that song, it's The Edge.

Prince is such a Prick.

Prince is a prick!

perhaps he can put it back up in a few days. lots of people seem 2 b doing tht...but i agree its crazy

Well your nephew should have known that was coming.

I know it's a sensitive issue and all, and it may not be the way to go about fan relations, but it's starting to become a little funny.

Petsie said:

please

i had a letter a little while back:

YouTube | Broadcast Yourself™
Dear Member:
This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by Prince / NPG claiming that this material is infringing:

Prince (DELETED)
Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to avoid future strikes against your account, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube's copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.

If you elect to send us a counter notice, please go to our Help Centre to access the instructions.

Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability.

Sincerely,
YouTube, Inc.

viewaskew said:

u are so right

This mess is dragging on too long now. Something has to be done, but in the meantime...
Who wants to play "See Sheriff Go?!"

Here's how the game works:

1. We upload random video to YouTube with Prince tracks playing in the background
2. We announce that it's been uploaded but not what it is.
3. We all guess how long it will take Sheriff to find it and for a notice to be sent out. The one that guesses closest gets a point.

Sorry Prince, you can't play, for obvious reasons.

anon said:

I'll play! ...tomorrow.

My nephew is not a huge Prince fan and has only just gotten into some of his music. He's been learning guitar for a few years and checked out some Prince material and really likes it. He asked me why nobody likes Prince, when songs like Purple Rain are so great. I said I don't know, but people are stupid. He agreed. Anyway, I introduce him to some other prince songs -- Guitar, and the original Endorphinmachine and he is blown away. So he posts a video of him playing the opening guitar part to the song Guitar... this was months ago, mind you. So he was unaware of any Prince suing or anything... it's not like he's a huge fan or watches the news, he's only 17.

I just thought it was a terrible thing to do, for Web Sheriff/lawyers/prince to specifically say his short 30 second clip playing "Guitar" is somehow copyright infringement. You have to blame Prince 100% for this and everything, because Web Sheriff and the lawyers are representing Prince in the way he wants to be, or else he would not pay them to do it.

lspear76 said:

knowing Prince and how he does business, Web Sheriff will be out of the picture soon, because he WON'T pay them. there's a list a mile long of companies Prince and his vanity companies owe money to.