Washed up The still popular with some TechCrunch readers 80’s pop idol Prince has announced his intention to sue YouTube, The Pirate Bay and eBay for copyright infringement.
Prince said that in YouTube’s case it could not argue it had no control over which videos users posted on its site: “YouTube … are clearly able (to) filter porn and pedophile material but appear to choose not to filter out the unauthorized music and film content which is core to their business success,” Prince said.
Reuters noted that it is rare for an individual artist “of Prince’s stature to take on popular Web sites while some up-and-coming performers actually encourage online file sharing to create a fan base and buzz around a record.”
Prince was most recently in the news after he decided to give away his latest album “Planet Earth” with an English Sunday Newspaper; some reports indicated that most readers wouldn’t even take the album for free. To those few remaining fans Prince has, those who seek to share his music with others on YouTube: sorry folks, Prince doesn’t love you.
Update: apparently folks feel that Prince isn’t washed up, so strike that until I find another way to describe the act of giving away albums and punishing your diminishing fan base.
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prince isnt washed up. maybe a little damp, but he still makes sales off of his earlier work. lol. why is he wasting his time? this may be a marketing ploy.
Indeed, as I commented over at Webware, this is strange of Prince, who usually is pro-fans. Also, Mr. Duncan, Prince is most certainly not washed-up, rather, like Israel said, a little damp, but you can’t listen to his single Guitar and tell me that doesn’t at least stir a little of the rock and roll guitar hero worship!
Turn the tables. Imagine a content aggregator site with a twist. It takes your content once per hour and reformats it for its own use. It then runs its OWN ads and Techcrunch makes nothing from its Flash and Adsense banners all over the site.
As income slowly declines, would you be so quick on the smug draw?
This has nothing to do with Prince. Who cares about Prince? Just keep in mind that this could happen to you, too.
Prince will be an excellent addition to the hilarious responses from Pirate bay to legal threats from Microsoft, Apple, Warner Bros…
http://thepiratebay.org/legal
it’s about time they added a celeb to torment and ridicule..
LEAVE PRINCE ALOOOOONE!!! (wahhh) Why does everybody pick on Prince??? (wahhh) Why do you compare his videos to porn and pedo stuff??? (wahhh) NOT FAIR!!!
“Washed up 80s pop idol…”
Said a man working for the man who’s having HAMMER speak at technology conference. You’re an idiot, Riley. And so is your boss for letting you publish stuff like that.
What kind of trashy reporting is this? Washed up? Did you not see the Superbowl performance?
Prince has been very protective of his content online, and he has a right to. And guess what? it’s been working for him.
Right, I’m sure TechCrunch and Duncan would have no problem at all if his “fans” republished all his articles all over the web, so other websites can make money from them and people have no reason to read TechCrunch at all.
You may think Prince is a tool but he has gotten more tail than all the readers of tech crunch combined will ever get. Purple Rain rules (said without a trace of irony)
lol - leave Prince alone, he’s not at all that bad…the only song i like of his is ’seven’
i’m all for him suing, or trying to, the bigger boys.
just for curiosity’s sake if he can pull it off
Wow, what a trashy, ignorant post. I have unsubscribed to TechCrunch.
How dare him try to control his own music.
I was rolling when I read the title. Beautiful!
“PEKer” see you later…..
Musically I’ve never been a big Prince fan but I’ve had the opportunity to be in the right place at the right time and seen him perform in smallerer club settings (warmup for tours) and I must say he’s one of the most talented musicians I’ve ever seen. And don’t forget, he’s been a rebel for a long time. He was one of the first to give the man the finger and go his own way. And, he’s built a music empire way beyond his own recordings. I wouldn’t discount his acumen. He does have a point with YouTube, this should be fun to watch if nothing else.
Wow! All dozen Prince fans have gone nuts in the comments: I’ve struck washed up from the post, however explain if you may how instead of striking a licensing deal with YouTube over the clips, that suing and therefore punishing your fan base is the act of anyone other than a serious tool?
Max (3) I’m not supporting widespread copyright infringement, what I am suggesting that instead of simply suing YouTube there are alternatives.
I’ll second that, Pot Kettle. Prince is an exotic bird of a musician. You, Riley, are a common wren of hack writer.
Duncan - Even if they tried to license the videos in youtube, there’s still users who won’t follow the rules, who will keep on uploading content even when it has properly been licensed, exposed to the world in it’s minty-fresh licensed state, and such and so.
“suing and therefore punishing your fan base”
Duncan, he is suing corporations like youTube and eBay. Fans are not being punished.
Prince is probably ok with the fans getting the music for free, as can be seen by his giveaways through newspapers and his live shows.
However, he is not ok with the corporations that profit off of his music without paying for it.
I think Prince is being shrewd and fair.
I agree with Hashim, Prince has always shown he is for the fans. He even gave away copies of his album as you stated in the article. This had to do with marketing of course, Prince is very smart about exposing his stuff, but it also has to do with giving his fans what they want
Duncan, please, have the readers in mind. This post is worthless and irrelevant to us. And do any of us want to read your flamewar with Prince fans? Answer: no. Go visit a web app or something.
Yeah, this whole issue is just about stale.
First off, the consumer has two options– buy the product at the price it’s offered, or do not. There isn’t somehow a third option of steal it and make up a bunch of lame rationalizations about the music industry or DRM. Don’t like Prince? Don’t like copyright restrictions? Don’t like the DRM he might use? DON’T PATRONIZE HIM AND LISTEN TO SOMETHING ELSE YOU AGREE WITH.
Then on top of that, we get the weird duality that he’s out of touch and old because his contemporaries give the music away online for the buzz, but that Prince is old and washed-up because he gives away his music for the buzz.
I also do not agree that if you say “Do not copy this,” about a work, that copying and uploading that that work online is “seek[ing] to share his music with others.” It’s Prince’s prerogative whether he wants to ’share’ his music for free or not.
Those that disagree, there’s a whole world of music out there, there are probably a lot of artists that agree with you that music should be ‘free’. So why not share that music for them if you’re doing them a favor. Show these washed up fossils like Prince what they’re missing out on.
Good thing YouTube wasn’t republishing Prince’s RSS feeds…you’d be on Prince’s side in THAT courtroom battle.
Perhaps you forgot that yesterday you made the silly statement that “So-called link blogs in Reader already break copyright and in a small way undermine blogs and content creators.”
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007.....der-feeds/
I’d really love to hear how you internally justify the asymmetry of your two positions. Did you drink too much last night before you posted? C’mon, just come clean
Will they sue IsoHunt as well?
Wow, you called Prince washed up and thought that would fly. Prince is an icon. Anyway, I’m not sure i agree with how he’s going about things here but he’s always done things a lil different.
Duncan, I think you might have missed something here. Despite popular belief (popular, in this case, directly equating to *your* belief), quite a few people really like Prince. They like him because he does things like play tiny venues at cut rate prices and give his music away for free while other artists think the internet should be turned off (*EltonAhemJohn*).
I don’t necessarily agree with the law suit, considering there are better ways to get the content aggregaters to make a deal. However, to think the a law suit is the only way for Prince to keep his career afloat is a bit naive. Of all the old artists turned modern marketers, Prince is second only to Trent Reznor in understanding the fans needs in a world where they can get content for free.
My prediction is that after a little bit of flash we’ll see Prince signing deals with most of these companies for content distribution rights.
I agree with Duncan that there are other alternatives that Prince could have thought of instead of suing youtube. Actually, youtube and similar services tend to increase the popularity of new album releases and is a quick way to reach out to global audiences. You join hands with them not pick up a fight.
Such a move from an artist like Prince (Yeh Duncan, I hold him in high regard. He definitely is not washed up. I diagree with you on this point
) is a bit strange. I hope Prince reconsiders and strikes a deal with youtube.
You know, there is a real simple solution to this problem - just insert a human being back into the equation. All uploaded content would first have to be vetted by the human before allowing to appear on a website. The artist must also first file a document allowing uploading of their content (opt-in). If not, then the content gets trashed.
Yeah, this would throw a monkey wrench into the business models of a whole lot of sites - but it would solve much of the problem. Don’t be surprised if eventually something like this gets passed as an extension to the DCMA.
Prince is right! Copyrights are copyrights, no matter what your intentions, stealing is stealing!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
Duncan, I’ve got your back. You’ve struck a nerve with some of these “party like its 1999″ clowns.
oh, ya, if you come across an extra Tech40 pass let me know…..
Goddamnit, I like Prince, but this is utterly retarded.
Interesting move on Prince’s part. Probably isn’t going to help increase his fan-base.
Prince?????
Jayzees, I didn’t come here to read bout that freak WTF
Prince wrote the song for Happy feet which won a golden globe award. His ticket sales in ‘04 was $90 million (i’m sure riley and tc makes more) He gets $8 Million a year in royalties alone.
#33 - Yea but he is a “No talent ass clown” just ask Michael Bolton!
For my money…it doesn’t get any better than when he sings BLAH BLAH BLAH
My friend email send me this shakira whatever song. It’s soo funny it had 5,226,951 ratings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8QH93jWZbk
That’s one million times more than shakira original song.
If no one else is going to say it:
“Why Don’t you purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka?”
Then Prince made us pancakes…
If no one else knows what I’m talking about, look up Prince on The Chappelle Show.
If Prince is so washed up then why does the fact that he is cracking down on pirating even an issue? I believe in free information, bit I also believe in fact. Fact it what sets you free.
3 words:
Little Red Corvette
Baby, I’m much too shy.
This post lost all credibility before starting…. Prince has always made great music….washed up.?..lol… *shaking my head in disapproval****
Prince had the top grossing tour in 2004 with $84.7 Million in sales. 2004 is well-past the 80s. And his 2005 album 3121 topped the charts:
http://www.rollingstone.com/ne....._the_chart
Somehow I think that equates to 1) Not being washed up and 2) Having more than a dozen fans as you suggest.
What an ignorant out-of-touch post. Forgive the name-calling: but you are a freakin’ moron.
Lmao @ post # 37
Duncan, there are some good comments here questioning your stance on this v. link blogs. would love to hear you mesh the theories in some convincing way.
37/Amit - LOL! Thanks, I needed a good laugh.
“you know where you got that shirt, and it damn sure wasn’t the men’s department”
-Another chappelle quote for the uninitiated
Duncan
YOU’RE ALL WET ON THIS ONE. PRINCE ROCKS, AND I’M PROBABLY OLDER THAN MOST HERE. I WILL REPEAT SOMETHING SAID ABOVE, ‘ HOW DARE HE TRY TO CONTROL HIS OWN CREATIVE WORKS’. GET A CLUE DUNCAN.
This is a Bull ish post that borders on slander. Prince has a consistent history of taking care of his fans while fighting against corporate exploitation. He’s always been on the progressive edge of digital distribution, and he’s never been shy of giving away his content. There’s nothing in Prince’s history or in his quotes that suggest that he would have a problem with fans sharing his content amongst each other. Prince has a problem with a corporation, Google, piggybacking traffic from what amounts to exploitation of his content. Did you even read his quote?
Do I completely agree with his tactics? No. But I would never say Prince doesn’t care about his fans.
And no matter how brilliant any work of art is, it is always in the eyes of the beholder. So what if a majority of readers aren’t interested in listening to a Prince CD? I would find it even more troubling for Prince if the opposite were true. There are plenty works of musical genius that would appeal to only a fraction of the population. It’s a cheapshot thing to say in the first place, much less attributable.
I know it’s fun for tech geeks can make whatever snide comments they want about Prince the public figure, but the fact of the matter is, most musicians are very much exploited by the major labels — even before the post-Napster era, and yes, even many of the famous ones. Sure, there are plenty of musicians that might strategically choose exposure over control. But give the man a break: he’s done a whole lot more to push the music industry forward than push it back.
I write about Google’s approach to content in light of VIACOM lawsuit in my latest blog entry, although from a whole ‘nother situation.
Duncan, complain all you want about Prince’s judgment here, but the man is a musical genius with a large following.
He also historically been a marketing genius, so let’s see how this works out for him. I tend to think he’s making a mistake, but it’s always wise to watch those who have had much more success than perhaps any of us ever will before coming to rather broad and hasty conclusions.
Michael:
there is a difference between wholesale across the board copyright infringement with link/ spam blogs and the odd fan video on YouTube: note I’m not condoning copyright theft in any way and certainly if PirateBay is hosting full albums illegally then they should possibly be on the end of the law suit (they’re not US based, and as far as I know they are a directory, but that’s not the point). I do think Prince suing because his biggest fans post the occasional video on YouTube is beyond stupid, particularly when there is an alternative: YouTube already has a licensing deals in place, there is nothing stopping Prince from negotiating with YouTube for a licensing deal that would be a win:win: He gets paid and his rabid fans (it would appear he has many by the comment stream) could continue using YouTube to promote his material to a wider audience; after all, isn’t the objective of any commercial artist the promotion of their works to as broad a possible audience? What this action does is send a big FU to Prince fans who want to share their clips with others.
Brian Clark
A marketing genius doesn’t sue the worlds largest video site…unless of course this is secretly all a giant publicity stunt in which case I’d have to stand corrected.
Duncan, I think you’re clearly misguided.
a) PirateBay hosts nothing but torrent files. YouTube hosts the actual video(s). How you think YouTube is legit and PirateBay is not is beyond me.
b) Why does Prince have to negotiate with a completely that illegally hosts the files, makes a profit, /then/ seems a little interested in making deals with the artist that it ripped off.
c) Prince is the last artist on the face of the earth that needs to get “promoted”. I’m fairly certain everybody who would buy his album has already heard of him.
d) Sharing clips is illegal. Prince owns all of the material (or at least partially) and has the right to fight for what he owns; he shouldn’t be harassed by bloggers that don’t care for his music to and be called childish names.
And for the record, Prince is the last musical artist that I’d listen to, but the level in stupidity saying that Prince shouldn’t have the right to fight for what he owns raised my concern to post a comment.