When egotistical rockstars cry

It's been widely known that Prince has been extremely careful about his image. From his fashion and his music videos and movies, to his staunch anti-YouTube stance and his days as an unpronounceable symbol, image is a serious concern for the 80s icon. But now, with his recent lawsuits against three of his fan sites, not only has he managed to alienate a majority of his fan base, but has proven that ego has consumed his brain, and that, in his mind, there's no difference between homage and infringement.

For those who aren't aware, this past week, Prince's lawyers have recently sent cease-and-desist letters to several Prince fan sites, demanding that they remove all photos, artwork and fan-submitted, Prince-related pictures. Not even photos of fan tattoos or license plates are safe from the Prince's image conscious wrath. In response, three of these sites - housequake.com, prince.org and princefams.com - have united to create PrinceFansUnited.com in response to the lawsuits. They claim that Prince and his legal team are trying "to stifle all critical commentary about Prince," and if they have to continue to have their images removed from the site, that they will "defend their position in the proper court of law, as well as fully prosecute any claims to which they are justly entitled."

In response to the PFU, Prince's promoter AEG released a statement saying "Prince is not suing his fans, is not looking to penalize fans and nor is he looking to or inhibiting freedom of speech in any way. In fact, he is simply looking to provide Prince fans with exclusive music and images entirely free of charge, and bypassing unofficial and unauthorized phony fan sites that exploit both consumers and artists." Oh really? Last time I checked, fan sites are used to pay tribute to artists, not to exploit their fans. I don't see any fan sites forcing people to pay for access to their site, or trying to take advantage of their visitors in any way. And how can this be seen as screwing over the fans when labels continue to charge $18 or more for new CDs only to release "deluxe editions" mere months later, as well as charging $50 minimum per ticket to see an artist such as Prince in person? I'd also like for the Prince camp to tell us the difference between a real fan site and a phony" one. In my mind, anyone who has the time available to set up and maintain a website, and is willing to fork over the money to pay for a domain name each month, is a true fan of an artist; otherwise they wouldn't waste their time. The statement goes on to say that "The action taken earlier this week was not to shut down fan sites, or control comment in any way. The issue was simply to do with in regards to copyright and trademark of images and only images, and no lawsuits have been filed." If you're not trying to control comment in any way, then why are you forcing these sites to take down all images, including tattoos and license plates? Unless Prince owns the rights to all of these tattoos and license plates, then he has no right to tell these sites to shut them down.

Also, AEG claims that "the three sites in question have falsely positioned themselves as representatives of millions of Prince fans. In fact, many have come out in support of Prince at his official site and even on the message boards of the unofficial sites in question." Now I'm not a PR expert, but I don't think insulting the intelligence of the Prince community is the way to go to appease your fan base. After all, I'm sure Prince fans have their own minds and can think for themselves, and can grasp the fact that any review of a Prince album is that of the writer of the review, and not the entire fan community. In other words, I highly doubt fans take any reviews or content that's posted on these sites as fact, unless it's news from Prince's camp. And I'd also like to meet the people who are supporting Prince right now. These have to be the twenty-something uber-Prince fans out there, who blindly agree with everything their idol says and sleep with their original vinyl copy of "Sign 'O' the Times" under their arms.

But apparently frivolous lawsuits aren't enough for Prince, as he's even unleashed a diss track at Princefansunited.com entitled PFUnk. In it, Prince sings "The only reason you say my name is to get your fifteen seconds of fame, nobody's even sure what you do" (um, I'm pretty sure we know why these sites exist; they wanted to pay tribute to your music), "I love all y'all, don't you ever mess with me no more" (um, I don't think they were, Prince) and that he wants digital music to "disappear" (I think there's a better chance of Britney Spears being secluded in her mansion, never to step out of the real world, then for this to happen). So what do fans have to say about this seven minute guitar jam? According to one poster, "It really is head and shoulders above anything on [Planet Earth] or 3121," while another thought they discovered an unearthed B-side from 1987, if not for the topical lyrics. So much for fighting fire with fire.

Still, it's not exactly clear why Prince has such a beef with these websites, as well as why he wants all Pricne-related images to be removed from them. But the PFU claims that the reasons is because these sites operate message boards whose posters are sometimes critical of the star of the star and his last album, Planet Earth. If this is the case, then instead of trying to alienate the very people who buy his music, or brainwashing them into thinking everything he touches is gold, the only thing Prince can do to fight criticism is to devote himself to making music that is worthy of standing on the same pedestal as Purple Rain and 1999. But even then, no matter how critically or fan-acclaimed an album is, it will always have detractors, so it's hard for any album to be critic-proof and universally admired. But if he spent as much time making new, innovative music as he does insulting his fans and suing websites created by the very people who cherish him, he may be closer to getting there.

— Jason Shoff