Re: Prince sues cover artists

Apparently, Prince has decided that copyright law should apply only when he wants it to.

Less than a month ago, Prince filed a DMCA complaint with YouTube to have videos of his performance of a
Radiohead song at a music festival taken down. Since only the copyright holder can submit a DMCA
complaint, Prince must have been taking the stance that the performer of the song, not the author of the
song, holds the copyright to a performance.

Now, he has taken the opposite approach. By suing the tribute artists, he is saying that the original author
of the song, not the performer, holds the copyright. This directly contradicts his earlier stance.

Admittedly, this is a somewhat simplified argument. You could make more complex arguments (based on any
rights that Radiohead may have granted Prince for his performance), but, based on Radiohead's reaction
to Prince's DMCA request, I am skeptical of anything that would imply that Radiohead granted Prince the
right to enforce copyright on the performance (this presumes that Prince takes the stance that the
original author maintains copyright, since, if he stated otherwise, his lawsuit would have no founding).

When it comes down to basics, though, consistency should be the presiding principle. Prince can't change
the law to suit what he wants at any given moment. If he wants to argue that he had the right to have the YouTube
video taken down, then he needs to accept that the tribute artists have the right to control how their work
is released. If he wants to be able to control the tribute artists, then he needs to accept/admit that he had
no right to request that the YouTube video get taken down.

Derek

Disclaimer: This is my personal opinion. I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces <at> freeculture.org [mailto:discuss-bounces <at> freeculture.org] On Behalf Of
Crosbie Fitch
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 2:05 PM
To: 'Discussion of Free Culture in general and this organization in particular'
Subject: Re: [FC-discuss] Prince sues cover artists

If only they had 'allowed' it to be distributed via BitTorrent.

Didn't they learn anything from the Grey Album?

On the other hand, possibly the greatest gift Prince could give his most devoted tribute artists is to sue
them, for then they get incredible publicity - at considerable expense of Prince's reputation and
goodwill from his own audience.

There must be a better way - that doesn't waste money on labels or lawyers.

________________________________

        From: Adi Kamdar [mailto:adikamdar <at> gmail.com]
        Sent: Thursday, 26 June 2008 6:48pm
        To: discuss <at> freeculture.org
        Subject: [FC-discuss] Prince sues cover artists

        http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/06/prince-sues-to.html

        Yikes.

        --
        ~Adi~

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