Soul Cynic
Prince Goes 'Crazy' Over Baby Dancing To His Song
Most of you by now have heard of Prince being very controlling of his music, and why not? When you're an independent artist who happens to be a musical genius and who has been screwed over royally by your former label, you have the right to not be fooled twice. Some of you may have noticed that during our Top 100 Soul/R&B Countdown that we did not post any actual music of Prince's lest we feel the wrath of Khan...er, His Majesty. Earlier this year, Prince invoked the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to force YouTube to remove a video of Prince performing Radiohead's "Creep," even though he did not record it first. In fact, members of the band were not able to view Prince's performance because the video was so swiftly removed. Now comes word that Prince and Universal Music Publishing are in court wrangling over, get this, a video a mother placed on YouTube of her child dancing to "Let's Go Crazy" for thirty seconds. Prince and Universal again are invoking the DMCA. Here at SBHQ, response to this news ranges from snickering to straight up seizure-mimicking eye rolling. What say you, readers? Is Prince doing what's fair to his artistry and bottom line by blocking all of his music from being shared without his explicit permission or is he just alienating fans who want to share his music with the world?
Tags: is it that deep?, prince, radiohead
Comments
@JRenzo, do you have 50,000 people riding in the car with you?
@Shawn.Blaze, why would Prince want you to give away for free what people pay upwards of $100 per seat for? If he's gonna release his concert DVD or footage or the internet, I'm sure he wants to get paid for that too
TJ | September 12, 2008 5:39 PM | PermalinkI love a post where there's a reason to post that Prince gif.
rkj | September 12, 2008 3:12 PM | PermalinkIt's ridiculous that the situation is portayed as if prince views and decides over every single copyright infringement. Therefore it's silly to say that now HE's gone to far. He just hired somone to get the job done... and as for his aims, I'm totally with him on this one.
On the other hand, to even consider this video a copyright infringement is the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a long time.
Clemens | September 12, 2008 1:09 PM | PermalinkPrince is OD w/it.
Protecting your art & image is one thing.
Suing your fans (even dedicated fans who run a msgboard dedicated to worshiping you) = Not the business.
I stay away Khan...ehh, The Beautiful One's material as well. If it's that valuable to him, he can horde & have it buried w/him when he dies.
Gotty™ | September 11, 2008 7:44 PM | PermalinkHe's out of control and stone cold paranoid right now. When you remove your remake of someone else's song and a get all facist over a baby dancing to a snippet of your music, you've gone too damn far! Cut it out Prince.
sdg1844 | September 11, 2008 7:17 PM | PermalinkDude is still trippin' on that Napoleon complex... LOL!
Nate | September 11, 2008 6:55 PM | Permalink@ blknite: Just like Play Mama.
nOvaMaticThat miglet is crazy..crazy as a road lizard.
blknite | September 11, 2008 4:37 PM | PermalinkI dunno ... it'd kinda whack, but honestly, if he isn't consistent, then where does it end? If he gives one person a pass, then how can he not give a pass to the next person who has a good excuse, or a cute t-shirt, or nice tits or whatever their claim to fame may be?
Go on 'head Prince. Handle your bidness, I say.
Scryptkeeper | September 11, 2008 4:33 PM | PermalinkPrince is taking it to the extreme BUT it is his material and he has a right to be selfish with it if he wants to.
NaNa | September 11, 2008 3:35 PM | PermalinkI love his talent, but sometimes the man is touched. But I guess he feels it's worth it...
DLS77 | September 11, 2008 3:11 PM | PermalinkThis baby thing is really taking it to the extreme...Personally I wanted to put a double disc that I have of Prince RECORDED LIVE in Syracuse NY (Purple Rain Tour), on the internet for downloading. I really wanted to do it so true Prince fans can expierence what I expierence everytime I listen to it....but I disgress because Prince will sue.
Shawn.Blaze | September 11, 2008 3:10 PM | PermalinkSo... do I need to ask permission to play my Purple Rain cd in my car when others are riding with me?
JRenzo | September 11, 2008 2:22 PM | Permalink