Prince's Lawyers Serve Top 3 Fansites With Cease/Desist Notices

Prince fans have banned together to fight for justice against the artist and his league of lawyers. Allegedly, Prince's representatives have contacted the three biggest Prince fansites, asking them to remove all visual likeness to the artist from their websites. This includes artwork, photos of Prince merch, and even photos of tattoos in the artist's likeness! WTF? Otherwise, these reps want to know how their clients, Paisley Park Enterprises, NPG Records and Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), will be compensated for the use of such images.To stand united, the three major fansites have formed an alliance:

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.

The alliance is called Prince Fans United and they published their situation on the new website www.princefansunited.com. Here is an excerpt from the latest:

Several of the largest web communities dedicated to the artist have received notices to cease and desist all use of photographs, images, lyrics, album covers and anything linked to Prince's likeness.It is our opnion 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.

It goes on to state:

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.

For more info, to download the press release, or contact a spokesperson for PFU, go to:http://www.princefansunited.com/www.Prince.org has this statement prominent on their front page:

prince.org, along with other prominent Prince fansites housequake and princefams, has been sent a "DMCA takedown notice" and at least two "Cease and Desist" letters from attorneys representing Prince. Their demands for removing content and mandating how we would refer to Prince, if obliged, would essentially mean the end of any discussion of Prince-related topics, hosting of images (even of people's symbol tattoos!) and more. We at prince.org will not stand for this, and have joined forces with the other affected sites to tell our side of the story and stand up to what are, in our opinion, bullying tactics designed to silence freedom of speech.