The Webmasters Formerly Known as Prince Fans
Prince is using an army of lawyers to attack several of the largest fan websites devoted to him.
The lawyers are seeking compensation for the sites’ use of Prince’s likeness, including lyrics, photographs, images, and album covers. They request “substantive details of the means by which [the fansites] propose to compensate our clients [Paisley Park Enterprises, NPG Records and Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG)] for damages…”
The owners of three fansites have banded together and formed PrinceFansUnited.com. According to the site, “It is our opinion that these threats are not made in an attempt to enforce valid copyright as Prince alleges in his threats, rather we believe they are attempts to stifle all critical commentary about Prince. We strongly believe that such actions are in violation of the freedom of speech and should not be allowed. Prince claims that fansites are not allowed to present any artwork with Prince’s likeness, to the extreme that he has demanded removal of fan’s own photographs of their Prince inspired tattoos and their vehicles displaying Prince inspired license plates.”
Alyssa Milano has previously also sued her own fans because of their websites.
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