AeschTunes

Prince is planning to sue YouTube, eBay, and Pirate Bay for the unauthorized use of his music on their respective sites.  Prince claims that YouTube can’t argue about not having control over which videos users post, pointing out that the site can filter out porn.  Meanwhile, YouTube’s response is that the service works with artists to help manage their music on the site.

Prince is also planning to sue eBay for allowing unauthorized items bearing his likeness to be posted for sale; he also plans to seek legal action against Pirate Bay, a site accused of being a source of pirated music and films.

I ultimately side with Prince on this issue.  He has every right to sue, since he owns the rights to his music, as well as has control over the use of his likeness.  Prince definitely has a case against the YouTube users who upload his music videos; in YouTube’s Terms of Service, it’s spelled out that you’re not supposed to upload videos that violate copyrights.  Now, when it comes to people uploading videos that happen to have a Prince song playing in the background (for example, someone videotaping a party, and a Prince song happens to comes on), he doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on.  And I also believe he has a good case going after the sellers on eBay selling unauthorized items bearing his likeness.  However, I hope I don’t hear about Prince trying to go after eBay users selling used copies of his music that they purchased legally, and are now selling off; in those instances, it’s like selling those items in a used store (except it’s being done over the internet rather than through a physical store).  I don’t know anything about Pirate Bay, so I really can’t comment on what kind of a case he would have against them.

While I support Prince and his efforts to protect his copyrights, I hope he uses caution and doesn’t go overboard with his lawsuits.