Prince serves Vine with a DMCA notice, isn't okay with even micro-clips of his songs being online
Prince might be down with Jesus, but he’s not down with Vine. Twitter, who owns the micro-video app, has been served with a DMCA copyright complaint from NPG Records, the label owned by the purple rocker. NPG asked that eight six-second video clips posted on Vine be taken down, claiming they contained “unauthorized recordings” and “unauthorized synchronizations”—which basically means that a tiny bit of Prince’s music could be heard somewhere in the clip. Twitter complied with the request, and the videos were removed from Vine.
This isn’t Prince’s first go-around with DMCAs. The artist is notorious for using them, and even issued a statement in 2007 saying that, no matter the content of the video, it’s “a matter of principle” that no one should be able to use his music without his consent. He's even said that no one should be able to cover his songs, no matter what. That hardline stance has drawn the ire of the many people who he's served with notices, including a mom who posted a 29-second video of her 18-month-old son dancing to the faint sounds of “Let’s Go Crazy” back in 2007, as well as several people who posted videos of Prince covering Radiohead’s “Creep” in 2008.
Twitter openly shares documentation of its DMCA takedown notices on a site called Chilling Effects that monitors legal issues relating to the Internet.