What did Prince do?

What did Prince do?

The artist once again known as Prince (Rogers Nelson) announced yesterday afternoon the he is dropping his $22 million lawsuit.  His decision was influenced by “widespread criticism” of his initial decision to sue his own fans over specific online links to copyrighted music files.

An attorney for Prince did not comment on the scrutiny the lawsuit received after being featured on Reddit’s homepage.   Most “Redditors” were unsympathetic to say the least.   Prince’s attorney did say that the lawsuit was meant only to target fans who “engaged in massive infringement and bootlegging of Prince’s material” on one specific website–WorldOfBootleg.blogspot—and in a related Facebook group.  The lawsuit focused on “363 copyright infringing music files.”

Prince’s legal eagle also told the press that due to “the recent pressure, the bootleggers have now taken down the illegal downloads and are no longer engaging in piracy.  We recognize the fans craving for as much material as possible, but we’d prefer they get it from us directly than from third parties who are scalpers rather than real fans of our work.”

Cara Duckworth Weiblinger, an RIAA spokesperson, said only: “Since we’re not involved in the suit we can’t comment on its specifics.  But generally any time an artist is compelled to proactively take action to protect their music, that’s completely their prerogative.”

As this goes to press Prince’s representatives had yet to respond to any requests for additional comment.

(Image courtesy of Paste Magazine)