AeschTunes

In response to the Prince Fans United coalition (which contains of three web sites that have been served “cease and desist” notices by Prince’s legal team), Prince has registered the domain name Princefamsunited.com. On the site, Prince has posted a seven-minute funk jam titled, “PFUnk.” The fanbase was made aware of the track’s existence through postings at fan site messageboards.

This new song makes no secret about who its target is. He refers to someone, apparently a member of PFU as “a big fat punk.” He also takes a jab at someone called “Weemolicious,” and also sings about wanting digital music to “disappear.”

Recently, John Giocobbi, the Managing Director of copyright agency Web Sheriff (which is helping Prince with all his copyright battles he has going on) admitted that they are going after more than just illegal bootlegging of Prince videos. He said that, “In essence, we’re going after everything, which is why it’s kind of pioneering.”

Now, I must say that I believe Prince has really started taking things too far. I was supportive when he was going after sites that could be seen as “bootlegging” him (such as unauthorized copies of Prince videos on YouTube, unauthorized merchanise with his likeness, etc.), but going after fan sites is just ridiculous. And releasing a “diss track” against the owners of these websites, in my opinion, is rather immature and juvenile. Honestly, when it comes to the courts, I can see them asking these fan sites to take down items that Prince would have rights to (such as album covers), but not to the fan-generated material (such as the photos of the tattoos inspired by Prince). Honestly, I think Prince would have a hard time proving that these fan sites are somehow “destroying” his image, and causing him financial harm. Let’s be honest, these fan sites are FREE PUBLICITY for the man. I honestly hope the legal system ends up ultimately siding with this coalition of fan sites.