Lawyers acting on behalf of Prince have sent out a flurry of US copyright infringement notifications to individual members of a popular UK website which encourages its community to create satirical images of well-known stars.
A number of users of b3ta.com have been slapped with DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) notifications after posting images that poke fun at the pint-sized popstar's ongoing crusade to rid the internet of unauthorised Prince material.
B3ta co-founder Rob Manuel said that he was "surprised Prince's lawyers had bitten". But the legal cudgels worked. In a posting on the site yesterday, Manuel wrote: 'Under threat of legal action from Princes legal team of "potential closure of your web site" - We have removed the Prince image challenge and b3ta apologises unreservedly to AEG / NPG and Prince for any offence caused. We also ask our members to avoid photoshopping Prince and posting them on our boards.'
The DMCA notifications claim that b3ta had infringed multiple copyright (pirate, unauthorised and libellous) owned by Prince, his record label NPG and entertainment group AEG.
But Manuel argued that the legal noise being made by Prince against his fans was counterproductive. He said: "It's what often happens online - web censorship blows up in the censor's face."
Although the notifications do not fall under UK legal jurisdiction, Web Sheriff, which issued the DMCAs on behalf of Prince's lawyers, claimed that the individuals could be sued in a US court if they failed to respond to the take-down request.
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