Prince to sue The Pirate Bay

[Jagi]

Prince to sue The Pirate Bay​

Posted by Greg Sandoval

Continuing an aggressive campaign to defend his copyrights, pop star Prince is preparing to file lawsuits within the next few days in three countries--including the United States--against The Pirate Bay, CNET News.com has learned.

John Giacobbi
(Credit: Web Sheriff)

One of the world's best-known BitTorrent indexing sites, The Pirate Bay has defiantly linked to pirated copies of films, TV shows, music videos, and other content while often boasting that it ignores Hollywood's requests to remove them. The Pirate Bay does not host any unauthorized content, but the service is internationally famous for being a highly effective file-sharing tool.

Prince will file similar suits against The Pirate Bay in the U.S., France, a country with laws favorable to copyright owners, and Sweden, where The Pirate Bay is based. In addition, Prince is preparing to take civil action against companies that advertise on The Pirate Bay, many of which are headquartered in Israel, according to John Giacobbi, Web Sheriff's president.

Prince has hired Giacobbi and Web Sheriff, a service that protects copyright materials from Internet piracy, to coordinate the legal challenges against The Pirate Bay and others who the singer believes has violated his copyright.

Giacobbi said Web Sheriff is also helping to launch an investigation into The Pirate Bay's off-shore connections to determine whether the company is compliant with Swedish and international income and corporation tax laws.

The Pirate Bay has already weathered several attempts by the governments of Sweden and the United States to shut down the site. Yet, this is likely the largest civil challenge the Web site has ever faced.

At the core of Prince's lawsuits are his claims that the three founders of The Pirate Bay are profiting from the work of artists without compensating them. The Pirate Bay earns $70,000 a month in advertising revenue, Giacobbi alleged. The site's founders have previously denied that the operation makes money.

None of the three founders of The Pirate Bay could be reached for comment.

The Pirate Bay Founders, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm
(Credit: Pontus Alexander/Fabian Landgren)

Prince, who Giacobbi said has the backing of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or IFPI, the group that represents the recording industry worldwide, is only adding to The Pirate Bay's legal troubles. The site founders also face criminal charges, according to a story published Thursday on the blog TorrentFreak.

A prosecutor in Sweden announced that he plans to press charges against five people involved with The Pirate Bay before January 31, 2008, the blog reported. The five are being accused of infringing on intellectual property.

The copyright battle that Prince has waged the past two months has not been without its costs. He was widely criticized this week when three unauthorized fan sites accused him of trying to violate their free speech rights when his handlers demanded that they remove several photos of him.

It was widely reported this week that Prince had begun suing fans. His representatives denied this.

"Prince is not suing his fans, is not looking to penalize fans and nor is he looking to inhibiting freedom of speech in any way," said AEG, Prince's promoter.

Prince began making headlines in September after lashing out against sites he believed were violating his intellectual-property rights.

In September, the singer said he planned to take legal action against The Pirate Bay, YouTube, and eBay. As of Friday, Prince's lawsuits appeared to be solely targeted at The Pirate Bay.

By suing The Pirate Bay in three different countries, Prince is hoping to put financial pressure on the service, Giacobbi said. Copyright laws in the United States and France would also make it nearly impossible for a site like The Pirate Bay to triumph, he claimed.

"There is no way that they will have any defense because it's blatant piracy," Giacobbi said. "They'll either have to come out and fight or just try and ignore it. In that case, we're going to win a default judgment against them. This could be a ticking time bomb for them. They can't outrun this. We are very confident."

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9814504-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

 

[johniz]

Good luck to him.

MPAA and RIAA can't win the war, let alone an artist.

peace

 

[LennyNero1972]

Cotdamn Prince is going all out ain't he. He's pretty much fighting a losing battle though. If he doesn't watch it, he'll find himself going broke from all the legal fees.

 

[mariano42]

Good luck to him.

MPAA and RIAA can't win the war, let alone an artist.

peace

co-sign.

hes ben active lately when it comes to suing.

 

[divine]

prince is a pretty smart dude.. I wouldnt be surprised if there was something more to this.. he's been known to do weird shit, then years later we find out it was pure genius!

 

[Golden Child]

Yo, BGOL better watch out he might just go ahead and sue this website.

 

[Jagi]

it actually does make sense and could cost him 0 dollars

torrentspy shut down

demonoid shut down

pirate bay has a new face, a multi million dollar selling artist as a poster boy to stamp out illegal content so other companies can pay and have him just represent


i think the trend we need to see here is torrents are being shut down left and right..


new format to share must be on the way..

i know alot of people say rapidshare etc is the way to go..


but that only works on a forum like this where you can ask for stuff and share it amongst each other


there is no search feature on rapidshare which is what made torrent so easily accessable


soooo who knows what the new format for sharing will be?

 

[LennyNero1972]

I don't use torrents that much anyway so fuck'em. But ya'll might be right on there being more to this story.

 

[DjMorpheus]

GIT THEM LIL CRACKA'S PRINCE!!!!!!!

 

[Hey Julian!]

I guess I'll just have use that other torrent site,...or maybe that one....how 'bout that one......oh and that is new

 

[Heist]

MPAA - Failed
RIAA - Failed
Big 3 Record Labels - Failed
Madonna - Failed miserably. Angry net geeks turned around and hacked her site as payback.
R.E.M. - Failed.
Metallica - Failed somewhat. They helped shut down Napster, but ultimately failed.


Public Enemy, Radiohead, and Pearl Jam all said "Fuck it" and gave their albums away for FREE on the internet.

Prince, what makes you think you're going to win? You're wasting your money and your time dawg. Just stick to doing live shows and including the cost of your new CD in the ticket price.

The internet has completely fucked the music business in the ass with no Vaseline and it's about to do the same to the Movie business.

 

[DjMorpheus]

Prince, what makes you think you're going to win? You're wasting your money and your time dawg.

He got Jehovah on his side.

 

[CPT Callamity]

Pirate Bay will post his subpoena letter or what have you and say fuck off as usual.

 

[Jagi]

He got Jehovah on his side.

 

[ned pepper]

its kinda funny how this war against piracy may end up like the war on drugs. they hope to kill demand by reducing supply. all they do is kill one monster so two or three more can take its place. if you kill demand for a product the supply will stop. honestly i think the music industry has been ripping people for years! the way technology is now, do we really have to wait months for CDs that no one will buy! record it, mix it, master it, and put it on itunes. these artists are trying to fight for the rights to an intangible product, not a painting, land, or possession. the one thing pirates cant take from them boys are tour show money. get off your ass and do a show.

 

[moblack]

it actually does make sense and could cost him 0 dollars

torrentspy shut down

demonoid shut down

pirate bay has a new face, a multi million dollar selling artist as a poster boy to stamp out illegal content so other companies can pay and have him just represent


i think the trend we need to see here is torrents are being shut down left and right..


new format to share must be on the way..

i know alot of people say rapidshare etc is the way to go..


but that only works on a forum like this where you can ask for stuff and share it amongst each other


there is no search feature on rapidshare which is what made torrent so easily accessable


soooo who knows what the new format for sharing will be?

There is a search feature for Rapidshare homey.

 

[Hey Julian!]

its kinda funny how this war against piracy may end up like the war on drugs. they hope to kill demand by reducing supply. all they do is kill one monster so two or three more can take its place. if you kill demand for a product the supply will stop. honestly i think the music industry has been ripping people for years! the way technology is now, do we really have to wait months for CDs that no one will buy! record it, mix it, master it, and put it on itunes. these artists are trying to fight for the rights to an intangible product, not a painting, land, or possession. the one thing pirates cant take from them boys are tour show money. get off your ass and do a show.

Well put, take some of that production advance and teach these cats how to do a show without 20 hype men. Take a page from Outkast, Organized Konfusion had them cats running around the block reciting lyrics to their first album, so they wouldnt run out of breath in concert. Smart.

 

[Jagi]

There is a search feature for Rapidshare homey.

wooooord?



where?

i only see upload

 

[casanova34]

prince is mad cause his whole collection is all in one 16.8 gb dowload i can understand them hating on new releases but the old stuff..,

 

[Theo_Huxtable]

Prince's ego is getting the best of him. Didn't he just try 2 sue youtube because his fans putting videos on the site

 

[Chitown]

it actually does make sense and could cost him 0 dollars

torrentspy shut down

demonoid shut down

pirate bay has a new face, a multi million dollar selling artist as a poster boy to stamp out illegal content so other companies can pay and have him just represent


i think the trend we need to see here is torrents are being shut down left and right..


new format to share must be on the way..

i know alot of people say rapidshare etc is the way to go..


but that only works on a forum like this where you can ask for stuff and share it amongst each other


there is no search feature on rapidshare which is what made torrent so easily accessable


soooo who knows what the new format for sharing will be?

I used to fuck with IRC a while back its pretty hard for them to shut that down. Newsgroups as well as those two option aren't as openly known as torrents and P2P programs.

 

[the flash]

MPAA - Failed
RIAA - Failed
Big 3 Record Labels - Failed
Madonna - Failed miserably. Angry net geeks turned around and hacked her site as payback.
R.E.M. - Failed.
Metallica - Failed somewhat. They helped shut down Napster, but ultimately failed.


Public Enemy, Radiohead, and Pearl Jam all said "Fuck it" and gave their albums away for FREE on the internet.

Prince, what makes you think you're going to win? You're wasting your money and your time dawg. Just stick to doing live shows and including the cost of your new CD in the ticket price.

The internet has completely fucked the music business in the ass with no Vaseline and it's about to do the same to the Movie business.

a men

 

[DANGEROUSBLACKMAN]

Prince's ego is getting the best of him. Didn't he just try 2 sue youtube because his fans putting videos on the site

Co-Sign, Damn These Music Artists Need To Fuck Off Damn They Already Rich Lets Us Download They Shit.

 

[Mo Pizorn]

That ninja gone LOSE. That ninja think he's special. He ain't. And all you ninjas co-signing him, remember that shit when you click on SLAM's music thread. Most of that shit came from torrent sites like Piratebay, torrentreactor, demonoid and others.
Fuck y'all. Jack Sparrow ain't got shit on BGOL! Get down or lay down, ninjas!

 

[King_of_Posts]

it actually does make sense and could cost him 0 dollars

torrentspy shut down

demonoid shut down

pirate bay has a new face, a multi million dollar selling artist as a poster boy to stamp out illegal content so other companies can pay and have him just represent


i think the trend we need to see here is torrents are being shut down left and right..


new format to share must be on the way..

i know alot of people say rapidshare etc is the way to go..


but that only works on a forum like this where you can ask for stuff and share it amongst each other


there is no search feature on rapidshare which is what made torrent so easily accessable


soooo who knows what the new format for sharing will be?

Prince will fail the same way the RIAA failed. Torrent/filesharing sites (many of them) have learned from past mistakes. Sherman networks which owns limewire (based in the netherlands) was sued unsuccessfully by the RIAA once before because it has incredibly limited power when the server is internationally based and the servers are decentralized (translation: there is no one "switch"than can be flipped to end the service which was the case with napster's centralized servers. The pirate bay is based in sweden and is virtually untouchable like limewire.

 

[GOLDIE]

He will ever win!

 

[Jagi]

I used to fuck with IRC a while back its pretty hard for them to shut that down. Newsgroups as well as those two option aren't as openly known as torrents and P2P programs.

i used to fuck with irc back in the day when i used to download dreamcast games..

havent fucked with newsgroups in years. someone posted mac friendly newsgroup info, i'll prob start checking it out this week.