Prince, fans in funky feud :: Music News :: Articles

Here's one for the "he said," "she said," "they said" file: a consortium of Prince fan websites dubbed "Prince Fans United" has accused the singer and his team of lawyers of trying to shut them down over the use of Prince related-images. That includes just unauthorized photos of the guy, but even "fan’s own photographs of their Prince inspired tattoos and their vehicles displaying Prince inspired license plates," according to a statement released by PFU.

Hmm... sounds pretty fishy.

Prince's U.K. promoter AEG promptly returned the volley:

"Prince is not suing his fans, is not looking to penalise 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 unauthorised phoney fan sites that exploit both consumers and artists."

And then PFU responded to these charges on its website... and so on, and so on. You know how these things go.

So where has Prince been in all of this squabbling? Just cooking up one of his funkiest songs in recent memory in response to the whole situation. You can stream it in its entirety here. Sounds like he's not siding with PFU. Either way, both sides say that they're trying to negotiate a settlement right now. The whole thing makes you wonder whether Prince will ever sue the various artists who have copped his style over the years.

Keep up to date with all of the developments in this story at The Daily Swarm.

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