Prince of Darkness Blog about trademarks, brands, copyright and free speech by lawyer Ron Coleman. Since 2005!

Written by: Ron Coleman

England’s Guardian reports that the Purple One, the talented and ~~eccentric~~ bizarre Prince Rogers Nelson — who transformed himself to a one-name “artist,” thence to a symbol (see below), then back again — is doing things the hard way once again. Already the bane of the defendants’ IP bar [PDF], now he’s doing exactly what you’d expect of him — putting it to his fans:

His lawyers have forced his three biggest internet fansites to remove all photographs, images, lyrics, album covers and anything linked to the artist’s likeness. A legal letter asks the fansites to provide “substantive details of the means by which you propose to compensate our clients [Paisley Park Entertainment Group, NPG Records and AEG] for damages”….

A coalition named Prince Fans United, representing Housequake.com, Princefans.com and Prince.org, has been formed by the website organisers to fight back. They said they would contest the action on the basis that it was an attempt “to stifle all critical commentary about Prince”. They added that the “cease and desist” notices went as far as calling for the removal of pictures taken by fans of their Prince tattoos and their vehicles carrying Prince-inspired licence plates.

“It’s a really short-sighted and futile move,” said Nicola Slade, editor of the industry newsletter Record of the Day. “Prince has got a lot of fans and as he’s decided to take a more leftfield approach to releasing his material, he should be nurturing the relationship. I’m shocked, really.”