Prince’s ambivalence toward the Internet is well known. Now, the singer formerly known as an unpronounceable symbol is taking legal action against fans for allegedly bootlegging his music via the Web.
Prince is suing 22 internet users believed to be among his fans, accusing them of sharing bootlegs of his concerts. The musician is demanding $1m (£605,000) each from the owners of websites and Facebook pages that he claims enabled the free distribution of recordings of his concerts…The mostly anonymous defendants are accused of engaging in “massive infringement and bootlegging of Prince’s material”, with each web page contributing to “up to thousands of separate acts of infringement and bootlegging.
Prince once embraced the web and its potential, but a few years back he joined the group of musicians waging war against online-based sharing.
Prince has achieved the unenviable distinction of being the musician with the most combative stance againstfile-sharing networks since Lars Ulrich, drummer for heavy-metal band Metallica, waved a list of 335,000 Napster screen names outside that company’s Silicon Valley office in 2000.
Later, he declared the Internet “over.”
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