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Prince to sue YouTube

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Prince is launching legal action against Google Inc. owners of the popular YouTube, for copyright infringement in an effort to end unauthorised use of his music and performances.

A statement released on his behalf, said: 'Prince believes that as an artist, the music rights must remain with the artist and copyrights should be protected across the board.' The statement further continued, suggesting that YouTube is able to filter inappropriate material, but appears not to filter unauthorised music and film content.

YouTube responded to say that it will work with the artist to monitor what music content appeared on the site. YouTube chief lawyer, Zahavah Levine, said: 'Most content owners understand that we respect copyrights, we work every day to help them manage their content, and we are developing state-of-the-art tools to let them do that even better.'

Prince has instructed Web Sheriff, a British-based law firm specialising in Internet Copyright Policing to act on his behalf. John Giacobbi, the firms Managing Director, said: 'Prince's actions are a brave and pioneering step to challenge the status quo and hand control over Internet rights back to the artists.'

Prince is no stranger in facing large corporations. He contended with his record label, 'Warner Bros' in the 90’s that they were affecting his creative freedom by limiting the number of albums he could release. Famously, Prince then changed his name to the unpronounceable symbol and commonly appeared in public with the word ‘Slave’ written across his face.