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.