So, more on the ongoing dispute between Prince and three of his fan community websites.
As previously reported, representatives of Prince have sent cease and desist letters to three fan sites - princefams.com, housequake.com and prince.org - claiming they and their subscribers are infringing various copyrights owned by Prince and his associates (mainly on lyrics and photos). The owners of the three fan sites have hit back and formed a new website called http://www.princefansunited.com, alleging that Prince and his people are using the copyright claim to close down their sites because they don't like it when members of the fan communities criticise the singer - an allegation Prince's representatives have strongly denied.
Those representatives issued their own statement at the end of last week defending Prince's right to protect his copyrights, and accusing the fan communities of falsely positioning themselves as representatives of the singer's fans, most of whom, they claim, would support the singer and not the fan communities in this dispute.
Responding to that, the people behind Prince Fans United posted their own new statement on their website on Friday, reading thus: "Many members and visitors will doubtless have seen the wildly inaccurate statement today by AEG that 'Prince is not suing his fans' and referring to the Prince Fans United sites as "phoney". Not only is this statement confusing, libellous and misleading, we have actually been informed by Prince's representatives that his PR company (Outside PR) sent this in error last night and it has been picked up by a few key media organisations today. We will shortly be issuing a (heavily) revised joint statement, however in the meantime please be aware that stories circulating on the internet that refers to "phoney" fan websites are wildly inaccurate and should not be taken at face value. Outside PR have assured us that every measure is currently being taken to withdraw these articles".
That statement does imply that despite the legal letters, Prince's management are working to reach an amicable settlement with the fan sites, and the people behind PFU have confirmed talks with the singer's people are ongoing, saying: "PFU has been contacted by Prince's Management and we are currently in discussions. We are hopeful that an amicable resolution can be reached wherein all can co-exist peacefully on the internet. However, if the talks are unsuccessful, the Prince Fans United Group vows to continue its fight".
Meanwhile, while the legal people do legal things, and the PR people do PR things, Prince himself has responded to the whole thing through the medium of song. I'm not really sure what's he's warbling about, but hey, it has a funky beat. You can check his musical statement at http://www.princefamsunited.com.