Prince, Village People to Sue The Pirate Bay

castrox writes to tell us that The Pirate Bay's legal concerns are continuing to grow. Prince and the Village People are planning to sue the popular torrent site with the help of the Web Sheriff law firm. John Giacobbi of Web Sheriff has also asked Swedish band ABBA to join the cause. The suit is seeking "millions of dollars" in damages, although it's still uncertain to whom the charges will be directed. The likely targets are the four Pirate Bay founders who were indicted a few weeks ago on charges of breaking copyright law. Prince has taken investigative action against The Pirate Bay in the past.

Comments

Re:Dear Prince

[QuantumG]

Prince and Trent Reznor, the loudmouths who feel the need to tell the world how much they hate their record label, and how they are embracing self-publication and, in the case of Reznor, how corrupt The System is, man, and we all should rebel or something.. then, at the drop of a hat, they'll be standing on the copyright dole line saying "gimme gimme gimme".

Get a real job.

Re:Guess I was wrong about him

[Mr2001]

An artist can choose his distribution model. If he wants to freely distribute it and make his money on concerts, the can go with a creative commons license and be done with it. If he chooses a different scheme, that is his choice. As the creator, he has the freedom of choice and it is not our right to dictate to him how he goes about it. Yes, I agree that he has the right to choose how he distributes his work. But I contend that you have the right to choose how you distribute his work, and I have the right to choose how I distribute his work. I won't dictate to him as long as he doesn't try to dictate to you, me, or anyone else.

Nobody has put a gun to our heads and forced us to listen to Purple Rain. They have, however, put a gun to our heads and attempted to force us not to use our CD burners or internet connections to reproduce certain numbers. That's just as bad.

I also feel that people should be compensated for their work and when I can finally order the season 3 compilation on DVD, I will. I completely agree that people should be compensated for their work. But making copies isn't the work of an artist, it's the work of any trained monkey with a computer, and I have little desire to pay someone for a copy when I can find thousands of people willing to make me a copy for free. Artists should be compensated for the work that they're uniquely qualified to do -- writing, recording, and performing -- by charging directly for it.

A lot of this moral posturing of Pirate Bay and its supporters is simply a cover for "I'm a cheap bastard and don't want to pay for my entertainment". And a lot of it is principled belief that has nothing to do with being cheap and everything to do with human rights, free speech, and frustration at an industry's unsustainable business model being propped up by everyone else's tax dollars.