Prince has reportedly responded angrily to over 1000 clips recorded at his recent shows at The O2 Arena in London that have surfaced on YouTube.
The footage, mainly shot on mobile phones, has appeared online despite efforts at Prince's shows to enforce a 'no cameras or camera phones' rule, which apparently consisted mainly of venue security shining bright laser pens into the eyes of anyone trying to capture a moment of the gig on their phone, or take a photo with their phone, or send a text message from their phone, or just check the freakin time on their phone.
The singer has said he is on a mission to "reclaim his art on the internet" after hiring agency Web Sheriff to monitor unofficial Prince material posted online. The 1000+ live clips on the Google owned video platform have now been removed.
Commenting on Prince's bid to remove unofficial content that has been posted online, a spokesman said that the singer "believes strongly that ... copyrights should be protected across the board" and that "people should remember his concerts as they were, not as some grainy mobile phone footage".
Given all the friends he won by choosing to give away his most recent album as a freebie with the Mail On Sunday, I'm sure everyone in the UK record industry is right behind him on this one.