Taxi Driver Blogger Clashes With Pop Legend Prince

by Rob Walker | January 10, 2008 at 09:59 am | 520 views | add comment

Prince - The Hits The B-Sides (Disc 1.2.3)

This raises some interesting questions about fair use. What if a natural disaster or a crime occurred, and you're standing nearby with your video camera. You start rolling, capturing the entire scene - but in the background, a radio is playing Elton John's 'Tiny Dancer'. When he tries to post it online, he gets a cease and desist order. At what point does the artists rights infringe on people's rights to document the world around them?

A taxi driver from Lancashire is at the centre of a row with one of the world's biggest-selling music stars.

Paul Gunson, better known as the blogger behind Adventures of a Taxi Driver on lep.co.uk, uploaded footage of himself driving down a street off North Road in Preston onto video-sharing website YouTube – with the sound of Let's Go Crazy by Prince coming from his stereo.

That was enough for the site to pull the film – called A Drive Around Meadow St, Preston – after pressure from Prince's NPG Records label who insisted it violated copyright.

The Walton-le-Dale dad-of-two said: "I never thought for a minute it would be a breach of copyright. It was an original CD I bought and it just happened to be playing in my car at the same time as I was filming.

"Prince has been on a bit of a crusade about this for a while about footage fans uploaded of his recent concerts, but this song is from 1984 – plus it was a CD I bought and the money made its way to him.

"I guess he had every right to ask for it to be removed, but it does seem a bit petty."