Prince Hooks Up With The Web Sheriff For Some Hot Internet Policing

noah | September 13, 2007 12:05 pm
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What’s Prince going to do with the money from all those big-ticket shows he played this year? Hire lawyers! The Purple One is planning to work with our pals Web Sheriff and sue YouTube, the Pirate Bay, and eBay–among other sites–in an effort to “reclaim the Internet” and stem the tide of videos, bootlegs, and unlicensed ringtones zinging their way around the world:

The Web Sheriff managing director, John Giacobbi, said the extent of piracy online has become “ridiculous”, spanning videos, music downloads, bootleg merchandise and unlicenced ringtones.

“99% of the stuff online is totally unauthorised,” he told MediaGuardian.co.uk.

“Someone has to start somewhere and we know this will make a serious impact – a hell of a lot of artists are going to follow suit.

“We have to build a 21st century model for the entertainment industry.”

Mr Giacobbi described YouTube, eBay and Pirate Bay as being in “the vanguard” of online piracy and said he hoped that once cases against those companies had been won, smaller sites would be more respectful.

In the past two weeks, Prince’s legal representatives have requested the removal of around 2,000 illegally uploaded videos from YouTube.

Well, the taking down of Prince-related videos has actually been going on for quite some time–but the eBay mention makes me wonder if this crackdown on bootlegs going to extend into the record-fair realm as well, or if the Web Sheriff is only going to remain an excessively polite e-presence in offending sites’ comments sections.

Prince seeks to ‘reclaim the net’ [Guardian]

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