Purple Reign of Terror

Prince's lawyers have forced his three biggest internet fan sites - Housequake.com, Princefans.com, and Prince.org - to remove every shred of content having to do with the artist.

That includes photos, album covers, lyrics, and even pictures taken by fans of their Prince tattoos and vehicles carrying Prince-inspired license plates, according to the Guardian

As if that wasn't bad enough, Prince is asking them to pay damages.

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. This has to be the worst business move since Steve Jobs' infamous iPhone price cut.

Prince's earlier decision to go after content posted on YouTube could be seen as being no different than actions by media companies seeking to protect their content.

But now to punish your biggest fans for public enthusiasm is one part destructive, one part futile: Most everyone else either cuts their losses or appreciates what is effectively free advertising for their music.

And not only is it bad business - Prince may not even have a case.

A coalition formed by the afflicted websites is planning to fight the action on the grounds that it stifles speech and that at least some part of the contested material would fit the "fair use" provision for use of copyrighted content.

The legal crackdown is something of an odd twist, coming from an artist who has in the past been so vocal against record labels that act as middleman between artists and his fans. He has long been selling his music directly to fans through his website. This summer, his new album was distributed fee with a copy of the Daily Mail newspaper in Britain.

The notion of collaboration between artists and fans has started to pick up, as musicians grow tired of bickering about online copyright issues while record sales go down the tubes. Recently, Radiohead earned attention for letting their fans set the price for digital downloads of their new CD.

But Prince - who should be happy to even have fan sites at this stage of the game - shows no signs of backing down against his offending enthusiasts.

Liz Gunnison