What a dumbass.

When he decided to give his Planet Earth album away for free in a Sunday newspaper, we all applauded. He was a pioneer, and he was suddenly part of the movement which would reshape the music industry. Ha.

There’s a discussion going on (several discussions, actually) over on HouseQuake that relate to Prince’s decision to exercise “an iron fist” over copyright control. The one which says it all for me is:

Fan-friendly, to me, is not being heavyhanded and completely unreasonable by threatening baseless legal action unless avatars – and other pictures that are not copyrighted by Prince – are immediately removed by the website. Prince is using too broad a brush in his supposed war on the Internet and by doing so, he is causing the friction that you see on this fansite.

And on the website PrinceFansUnited, three major fansites are uniting against Prince and his crack legal crew. They have the following statement online now:

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…

The owners of the three largest fansites supporting Prince: www.housequake.com, www.princefams.com and www.prince.org have come together to fight back to what amounts to an injustice to the fansites and the very fans who have supported Prince’s career, many since the very beginning nearly thirty years ago.

It is their hope that Prince will reconsider his position and allow these fansites to continue their existence without constant threats from Prince and his attorneys. Should this not be possible, the fansites are fully prepared to defend their position in the proper court of law, as well as fully prosecute any claims to which they are justly entitled.

I think they make their point pretty well. Besides, it is generally acknowledged that displaying album covers and certain photographs is fair use and doesn’t constitute a breach in copyright law.

Unless you’re an uptight little diva who’s hell-bent on divorcing yourself from reality.

Really, Prince, you’re a big disappointment.

Click on the Read More link after the video to see Purple Rain!

Prince’s decision to give his new album, Planet Earth, with a forthcoming edition of the Mail On Sunday has drawn widespread criticism from the British music industry as a whole, with Paul Quirk, chairman of The Entertainment Retailers Association, declaring it “an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career. The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores.”

Ooh, handbags at dawn from the record store guy! I especially loved the “insult to all those record stores” line. Come on Paul, it’s not as if those record stores were selling Prince records for the good of their health! I’m sure those poor record stores made a few pounds out of their sales of Prince records. What a disingenuous thing to say.

From what I read elsewhere, the decision to close Fopp has more to do with the growing download market and declining sales of physical product. Fopp weren’t alone, as HMV have been feeling the pinch too.

So, Mojo, it wasn’t Prince who dunnit, in the kitchen with a free album in a conservative Sunday paper. Better look at some of the other suspects: music downloads, online retailers like Amazon, and the decline in quality of music generally.

On a personal note, I discovered a Fopp store in London before Christmas, and I really enjoyed shopping there. The stock wasn’t the usual mainstream garbage you can buy everywhere else, and they seemed to have thought about the types of products they were offering. It’s a genuine shame that they’ve been forced to close. But not for Prince presumably.

Tickets will cost £31.21, a reference to his album 3121. Though he will also be playing at much smaller venues to make it “affordable for everybody”.

At a recent press launch Prince exclaimed:

“I love London,” he explained at a press launch. “I’ve had some of my favourite shows here.”

He added that he hoped to be joined in some of the gigs by Amy Winehouse.