In his ongoing mission to remove all unauthorised streams of his music from the internet, and to prove once and for all that he's really lost it, Prince is now suing a toddler. Or rather, the mother of a toddler.
Stephanie Lenz uploaded a 29 second video of her child dancing to Prince's 'Let's Go Crazy' onto YouTube in February 2007, but it was taken down after Universal Music Publishing claimed it infringed copyright. But then Lenz successfully applied to have the video reinstated, saying that she had posted it for friends and family.
The case was then taken to court by Prince's publishers, where it continues to roll on.
Lenz, backed by by digital rights lobby group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, argues that the video was covered by "fair use" provisions in copyright law. But Universal Music Publishing argues that it was entitled to send the original takedown notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Despite this position, the publishing company subsequently moved to have the case dismissed, but US District Judge Jeremy Fogel has rejected this move on the grounds that Lenz has already incurred costs fighting the action, and deserves to see the case through to completion because she may be able to claim those costs from the major should she win.
Of course the publicity surrounding the case means Universal's plans to stop people hearing a poor quality clip of a Prince song have failed, given that everyone is going online to check the video clip. It's now been seen over 670,000 times.
See what all the fuss is about here