Copyright, Schmopyright

I was perusing the news today. Now, my way of “reading the news” is a little unique… first, I cruise the home site of the New York Times, reviewing scientific studies linking which women are more prone to breast cancer and pretending to understand the newest ways that industries are seeking U.S. regulation. Sufficiently educated about the important worldly goings-on, I move on to my guilty pleasure, the other source of big news: celebritygossip.com. Yes, I know the website strikingly resembles the DVD cover of Legally Blonde: hot pink, shallow, biased, and politically inconsiderate beyond belief. (I’m most fascinated by the portion of the site entitled “Black Gossip”, full of juicy tidbits of daily living for the black community. My question is, where is the “White Gossip” section? And why is black gossip different from any race’s gossip? Ah, so close to discovering the all-meaningful answers…yet so far).

Useless though it might appear, celebritygossip.com has some interesting articles. For example: that epic and timeless artist (that everyone loves to make fun of) formerly known as Prince is currently in the process of taking legal action against eBay, YouTube, and Pirate Bay over internet copyright infringements. According to his PR, these distributors “failed to filter out unauthorized Prince content”, and Prince wishes to “recoup lost copyright revenues” through his lawsuits. Now, the average person’s first response to such news is, “HAH. Prince is suing the Internet?!? Retard, good luck with that…the Internet is like God these days”. And when you compare the implications of this lawsuit to the fact that as a recent promotional gimmick, Prince GAVE AWAY 2.8 million copies of his newest album Planet Earth in the UK’s Sunday newspaper, you gotta realize that someone’s a little hypocritical here.



First of all, why is Prince suing the internet distributors? They’re not responsible for the copyright violations and illegal downloading, they’re only platforms for media sharing that can be misused for unlawful distribution. They haven’t technically done anything illegal. If he’s so upset about it, Prince should be going after the illegal downloaders themselves…a daunting, near-impossible task at best, but they’re the ones ultimately responsible for his “loss of copyright revenues”…



Second, Prince has usually been known for his open-minded marketing techniques regarding his work. He recently made a deal with Verizon to offer free downloads of his single, “Guitar”, to help promote both Planet Earth and Verizon’s new (odd but intriguing) “music hunter” song ID feature. Why is he so uptight about maintaining total copyright control on the internet when he’s throwing the shit out for free everywhere else?



Third, the vast majority of the money that artists make nowadays comes from tours and other media promotions. Yes, illegal downloading does hurt them a little profit-wise, but mostly what’s important to many artists is getting their work popularized and recognized so that people will 1)know who they are, 2) like and support their music, and 3) come see them ON TOUR, which is what ultimately makes them wildly rich and successful. Prince’s lawsuit is just another example of what the legal system should not be used for (think along the lines of suing McDonald’s because you’re fat). He has (approximately) a snowball’s chance in hell of proving YouTube and eBay of any actual wrongdoing. In fact, maybe this is just another clever publicity stunt to further commercialize his already too-hyped album. Prince…good luck suing God. You’ll need it.