The Littlest Thug: Prince Sends Cease And Desist To Fan Who Created 'Le Petit Prince' Miniature Doll

from the dawwwww...-he's-so-CUTE-when-he's-angry! dept

Wed, Nov 21st 2012 5:45am — Tim Cushing

For an artist who has worked tirelessly to maintain his artistic integrity (even going so far as to change his name/wear a mask), Prince has done more than most to ensure that his vision remains intact all the way up to the fans' ears. Unfortunately, he seems to view this "connection" with his fans as one-way.

Between starting one of the first CwF websites and swiftly abandoning it after collecting $79/head, suing YouTube, eBay and the Pirate Bay for "making his work available," declaring the internet to be "over" (and thus, unworthy of hosting his music) and claiming that cover versions physically destroy the original tunes (???), Prince has done everything he can to prevent fans from connecting with him.

To that end, Prince has yet again flexed his tiny, presumably purple, muscles to order a fan to cease and desist doing fan-type stuff. Troy Gua, a "serious Prince obsessive" and conceptual artist, just received a cease and desist letter from "Prince's people", ordering him to knock off his puppet-based adoration of the Artist.

Somewhere deep down, we're sure Troy Gua expected he'd someday have to face saying goodbye to the much-lauded miniature doll that was at the center of his art series, Le Petit Prince. This was no small project -- Gua literally recreated many famous Prince moments with the little guy and even included detailed props like the Purple Rain motorcycle. Ironically, we were recently emailing with Gua to do a piece about the new calendar he was putting out featuring some of these photographs, but this week Gua sadly informed us the dream is over. He received a cease and desist letter from the real Prince's people on Monday.

Not only did Troy Gua receive an angry email, but also a very official hard copy via FedEx. The order states that Gua is not allowed to "exhibit the photo work or the sculptural doll," which covers pretty much the entire Le Petite Prince project. Gua has decided not to fight back and has left instructions on his website asking fans to only leave positive comments.

Gua's taking the high road, but Prince seems unwilling to allow any sort of expression based on him or his works to see the light of day anywhere. CityPages points out that another artist was hit with a C&D for posting Prince remixes for streaming only at her SoundCloud page. Presumably, the upcoming calendar would be considered commercial use of Prince's image (I suppose) and that may have urged on the Purple Hammer, but DJ Lenka Paris' mixes weren't being sold or made available for download, so it's not entirely a crackdown on commercial use.

It may be that Prince wants all things "Prince" to originate from Prince only. If so, Prince should learn to let go. No one has that much control and attempting to maintain "artistic integrity" by stomping out anything not officially blessed by the man himself is an awful way to treat fans. Here's exactly how to do CwF WRONG:

If it wasn't clear before, his Purpleness has some very stringent ideas around what his fans can and cannot do in their appreciation of him. In a nutshell: Yes, please do pay $250 for that concert ticket, but 'Hova help you if you seek to publicly admire him through music or art.

Prince has a large fan base and it appears that his fans won't fight a legal battle with a.) someone with much more money or b.) someone they respect greatly, even if that respect is completely one way. One of those is logical and the other is understandable, but either way, it's tough for non-Prince-acolytes to respect an artist whose response to fan efforts that stray into "his" territory is unvarying legal thuggery.

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Filed Under: fans, prince

45 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2012 @ 5:53am

Who's this "Prince" character? Is he real royalty?
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Mesonoxian Eve (profile), 21 Nov 2012 @ 6:09am

Prince still thinks it's 1999, and expects every to party as though it is.

More power to him... or should I more precisely say "it".
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BentFranklin (profile), 21 Nov 2012 @ 6:20am

Prince has done more than most to ensure that his vision remains intact all the way up to the fans' ears.

I think I found the problem. The Former Artist Named Prince is doing it wrong.
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anon, 21 Nov 2012 @ 6:24am

Not every Prince fan is so blinded by his antics, yes he "was" a pop star in his day but that day is over, I like to listen to a few of the old tracks that he released many years ago, but in no way will I support such a goof, seriously, I can understand him being forced to change his name when he left his label during the contract he had with them, and I can accept some of his flakiness when he was popular but he is a hasbeen, with most of his real fans having moved on from his antics and his music.
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nospacesorspecialcharacters (profile), 21 Nov 2012 @ 6:27am

What if...?
What if this is all just an elaborate next step in part of his plan to fade into non-existence?

Not happy with just making sure people couldn't say his name, he wants to make sure people can't actually remember him or his music!

Keep going Pri... Umm... &$%@@**... whoever you are, in a few more years you will be completely irrelevant and forgotten!
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Mason Wheeler, 21 Nov 2012 @ 6:28am

Clueless as ever
I can't find it now, but I read an account a while back posted by a beleaguered Web designer who had been contracted by Prince to build an official website for him. After some time, His Purpleness ran across a JPEG artifact or two and confronted the web designer about the imperfections in the images.

He tried to explain some of the technical details behind it, and how by discarding a small amount of mostly-unnoticeable visual information, the files could be cut down to a manageable size, but Prince was having none of it. He was all "I did not get where I am by cutting corners," and insisted that ZERO lossy compression be used for any image on his website, which is how he ended up with one of the slowest professional sites on the World Wide Web.
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ECA (profile), 21 Nov 2012 @ 6:42am

Another Micheal jackson
Another Micheal jackson

50+ year old artist..
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2012 @ 8:34am
  
  Re: Another Micheal jackson
  Another M O R O N I C comment.. Apparently, 50 is a number you will never reach with any self respect.
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- Mason Wheeler, 21 Nov 2012 @ 9:30am
  
  Re: Another Micheal jackson
  I dunno. Prince is a lot of things, but (as far as I know) a child molester is not one of them.
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That One Guy (profile), 21 Nov 2012 @ 6:46am

Ummm, given how he-who's-name-cannot-be-pronounced acts, are we absolutely sure he is aware that his previous name of 'prince' doesn't mean he's actual royalty? Because if he wasn't aware of that little detail, might explain a lot about his actions.
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This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

out_of_the_blue, 21 Nov 2012 @ 6:49am

You're confused. This isn't even copying, it's second-handing.
As I've said before, if someone else's work is basis of and indispensable to yours, just don't do it, at best verges on copyright infringement, at worst shows you're a second-hander wasting what little time and talent you have by mere copying, and it's often painful to those who like the original. -- Even if sincere "homage". -- Enjoy their stuff and steal bits here and there for your own interpretation, but NOT using even audio samples. -- And c'mon, an entire puppet show! That's just near creepy obsessing that I'm glad is supppressed.

Take a moment for Mike "Streisand Effect" Masnick and click:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
Actual unsolicited testimonial: "Until I read Techdirt.com, I didn't know what shameless self-promotion was!"
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2012 @ 7:09am
  
  Re: You're confused. This isn't even copying, it's second-handing.
  Quote:
  As I've said before, if someone else's work is basis of and indispensable to yours, just don't do it, at best verges on copyright infringement, at worst shows you're a second-hander wasting what little time and talent you have by mere copying
  
  By now you know that is nonsense don't you?
  Because seriously, people told you a thousand times already why that is nonsense.
  
  If there was true you wouldn't be able to have a car without paying royalties.
  
  The guy created his own vision of the Prince world, he invested time and work to do it, but a monopolist is stopping him from doing it now and that is a damn shame.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2012 @ 8:55am
    
    Re: Re: You're confused. This isn't even copying, it's second-handing.
    How is this legal to profit from the shirttails of a real brand, Prince? Who doesn't know this "Prince" by just the mere mention of "Prince"? What legal right does someone have to use that name for his or her own aspirations without a licensing deal at least? What if you were, "Princess"? and someone came up with a beer named "Princess Beer"? Would you drink it without being miffed? I don't think so. I think you would want to OWN that. But, maybe not.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Rikuo (profile), 21 Nov 2012 @ 10:39am
      
      Re: Re: Re: You're confused. This isn't even copying, it's second-handing.
      I dare say the British Royal Family, and Princes Charles, William and Harry deserve more of a right to the word "Prince" than this talentless hack. Ya know, given that they are actual PRINCES, and simply self-declared?
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      - Rikuo (profile), 21 Nov 2012 @ 10:39am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: You're confused. This isn't even copying, it's second-handing.
        *and NOT simply self-declared?
        
        My mistake, left out the not.
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2012 @ 7:33am
  
  Re: You're confused. This isn't even copying, it's second-handing.
  u r 2 cool 4 skool, brah
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2012 @ 8:06am
  
  Re: You're confused. This isn't even copying, it's second-handing.
  if someone else's work is basis of and indispensable to yours, just don't do it
  
  You're right, your mommy and daddy should've never had kids.
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2012 @ 8:12am
  
  Re: You're confused. This isn't even copying, it's second-handing.
  Gonna take a second wack at this one because it's so wacked.
  
  if someone else's work is basis of and indispensable to yours, just don't do it
  
  Hey, yeah! Great idea!
  
  Now we have no computers, internet, electricity, medicine, houses, language, community, eachother ... Anything really because everything is a basis of itself. Dumbass.
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- Milton Freewater, 21 Nov 2012 @ 9:47am
  
  Re: You're confused. This isn't even copying, it's second-handing.
  "As I've said before, if someone else's work is basis of and indispensable to yours, just don't do it, at best verges on copyright infringement, at worst shows you're a second-hander"
  
  This may well be the dumbest statement about culture in the history of the Internet.
  
  ALL art is based on (interpolates) other art. ALL art. There are two ways to do it - informally, the way Homer, the Bible, Shakespeare, the brothers Grimm, etc. etc. etc. did it, and formally, the way Lewis Carroll, Warhol, Spielberg, the Rolling Stones, most 20th century artists, and remixers do. This doll creator falls somewhere in between.
  
  These works are art regardless of whether the artists have a legal right to distribute.
  
  As always, blue, I appreciate your demonstration of the ignorance at the center of the pro-copyright position. My favorite part is when you say you're so proud of your ignorance, you've displayed it more than once.
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2012 @ 10:02am
  
  Re: You're confused. This isn't even copying, it's second-handing.
  Please, I'd love to see you tell that to Andy Warhol.
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- Big Al, 21 Nov 2012 @ 1:54pm
  
  Re: You're confused. This isn't even copying, it's second-handing.
  "As I've said before, if someone else's work is basis of and indispensable to yours, just don't do it, at best verges on copyright infringement, at worst shows you're a second-hander wasting what little time and talent you have by mere copying"
  
  Snow White
  Sleeping Beauty
  Cinderella
  Pinnochio
  The Jungle Book
  
  Need I go on?
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- techflaws (profile), 21 Nov 2012 @ 11:39pm
  
  Re: You're confused. This isn't even copying, it's second-handing.
  As I've said before
  
  That's your problem right there, you somehow see to think it matters to anyone. Hint: it doesn't.
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- Niall (profile), 26 Nov 2012 @ 8:56am
  
  Re: You're confused. This isn't even copying, it's second-handing.
  Oh look, it's the new graduate of the Ronald J Moore School of Unnecessarily Long and Pointless Sigs.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2012 @ 6:55am

I've been curious at what stage in an artist's career they go from just being excited just to have such devoted fans show their love and creativity in unexpected ways. To feeling entitled their fans should behave and follow the vision of the artist.
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jupiterkansas (profile), 21 Nov 2012 @ 6:58am

Perfect opportunity for another band to hire this guy to make puppets of them.
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weneedhelp (profile), 21 Nov 2012 @ 7:14am

Pince and the nebbadution
Just go away little man?
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- Scott Yates (profile), 21 Nov 2012 @ 7:31am
  
  Re: Pince and the nebbadution
  Congrats on inventing a new word! lol
  
  I was wondering what nebbadution meant so i had to look it up.
  
  Turns out, you are the ONLY one on the web to ever use that phrase: nebbadution
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Gregg, 21 Nov 2012 @ 7:17am

simple math
Bad publicity and free publicity = publicity�
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2012 @ 7:20am

An example of how copyright maximalism stops all new works.
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- This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
  
  Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2012 @ 9:05am
  
  Re:
  And the opposite of copyright maximalist is? #1 Answer:
  
  Blood sucking worm scathing across the wide open spaces of someone else's persion rug in someone else's alabaster mansion?
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  - Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 21 Nov 2012 @ 9:59am
    
    Re: Re:
    so you're saying the scale loops back in on itself? Because the copyright maximalist is a blood sucking worm (and tends to rip off more copyright then those who aren't maximalists).
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Josef Anvil (profile), 21 Nov 2012 @ 7:49am

Fan of the music not the man
I'm a huge fan of Prince's music!!!!

Now that I got that out, I have to say the man is moron when it comes to knowing how to treat his fans in cyberspace. He doesn't make his videos available on YouTube. Does he really think people are still watching MTV or VH-1 ? Does he really think we are sitting around waiting for an announcement that he will be airing his videos on some TV channel?

Best way to deal with his Purple Highness is to pirate everything he's made and share it.

I would say his brain is lost in some purple haze, but then I'm sure I would get a shake down letter from a Jimmi Hendrix lawyer.
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- nasch (profile), 21 Nov 2012 @ 11:21am
  
  Re: Fan of the music not the man
  Best way to deal with his Purple Highness is to pirate everything he's made and share it.
  
  Nah, just ignore it and him. Let him be a lesson in the relationship between control and obscurity.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2012 @ 7:51am

He shouldn't be surprised if, 30-40 years from now, he would have a very death and an equally lonely funeral, having lost all his fans and his friends.
Truly sad.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2012 @ 8:52am

The poor guy. He's incredibly talented, I hope there's a Streisand Effect on this so that his work gets out there into the public eye. But I am reminded of Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper and his framed restraining orders from Stan Lee and Leonard Nimoy. If Troy Gua is a trufan, he'll have the Princely C&Ds in shiny purple frames and on his wall in no time.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2012 @ 9:01am

jumped up, self interested littler shit ought to crawl under a log and stay in total obscurity!
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2012 @ 9:26am

Who cares about Prince ?
Not Me that is for sure.
He wants to Party like its 1894 !!!
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gab4moi (profile), 21 Nov 2012 @ 10:44am

symbol known as who gives a ....
Little Wendy and Lisa, oui, little prince, French for not so much...
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2012 @ 12:27pm

I don't see why this isn't contested. He's not including anything produced by Prince in his work. Not his music or any imagery he produced or even his logo. Only a likeness of him, which is perfectly permissible of a private figure, let alone a public one. Unless there's a case to be made that someone is likely to mistake this as a claim that the representation is actual size, and therefor libelous, there's no constraint against producing a likeness of anyone.
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Name, 21 Nov 2012 @ 12:30pm

I don't see why this isn't contested. He's not including anything produced by Prince in his work. Not his music or any imagery he produced or even his logo. Only a likeness of him, which is perfectly permissible of a private figure, let alone a public one. Unless there's a case to be made that someone is likely to mistake this as a claim that the representation is actual size, and therefore libelous, there's no constraint against producing a likeness of anyone.
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- nasch (profile), 21 Nov 2012 @ 1:14pm
  
  Re:
  I don't see why this isn't contested.
  
  Simple: $$$$$
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Ricki Berlin, 21 Nov 2012 @ 1:19pm

Time to move on
It's time for Mr. Gua to move on.
Move on with "LePupp�t formerly known as LePetit Prince".
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Androgynous Cowherd, 21 Nov 2012 @ 2:33pm

The "high road"?
Gua's taking the high road

That's not "taking the high road", it's "knuckling under". Prince's legal threat doesn't have a leg to stand on. He can't claim a copyright on anything that merely references him, only on his own original works, which these aren't; and trademark requires use in commerce and likelihood of confusion. I doubt the latter, at least, is applicable here.
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techflaws (profile), 21 Nov 2012 @ 11:38pm

"tiny, presumably purple, muscles"

LOL!
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AngelSoDivine, 13 Dec 2012 @ 11:45pm

Ceist & Desist Party in L.A. 12/15/12
The Palms Bar-Santa Monica Blvd. West Hollywood
Saturday-December 15th 2012
8:00pm until 2:00am

The artist Troy Gua, who created the figure LE PETIT PRINCE, recently received a "Cease & Desist" letter from Prince & his attorneys, bullying him into removing every single image and likeness of LE PETIT PRINCE from the internet, at least from Troy's website: www.troygua.com

This inspired me 2 have a HEAD night again N Los Angeles devoted 2 the Troy Gua creation known as LE PETIT PRINCE, which is a loving and respectful miniature figure made N the honor & image of PRINCE. During this "Cease & Desist" part
y, video montages of the many Prince scenes Troy Gua created with LE PETIT PRINCE will B played throughout the club AS WELL AS the music, videos and visuals of Prince, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and the many MPLS related artists they produced and wrote 4.

The Palms Bar will B transformed N2 a virtual Prince & MPLS related museum with album covers, paintings, posters, memorabilia and more covering Prince, Jam & Lewis and the many artists they've touched from the 70s 2 Now. A massive wall sized video screen overlooking the dance floor will fill your eyes with Princely visuals & videos all night long!

A Princely Drink Menu AND a Special LE PETIT PRINCE Drink will B available from the wonderful bartenders Pattie and Victor!!

HEAD nights are a rarity these days so make sure and find a babysitter, call in sick, take vacation...do what U need 2 do 2 clear your calendar & come 2 the CEASE & DESIST Party 2 sho the love 2 LE PETIT PRINCE and the music & videos of Prince & related!!!

And 2 all those worried...DON'T! Let's say I, DJ Myles Matisse received a "Cease & Desist" letter from Prince & his legal team, I would ignore the letter and put on this party anyway. Prince & his peeps would have 2 physically come down to The Palms Bar and shut me down personally for this night NOT to happen. It's about freedom of speech and freedom of expression and the MUSIC, VIDEOS, VISUALS of Prince, Jam & Lewis & related...including LE PETIT PRINCE!

SIGHTS & SOUNDS: DJ/VJ Myles Matisse!
COVER: $5
AGE: 21+
TIME: 8pm-2am!
DATE: Saturday, December 15th!
WHERE: The Palms Bar
8572 Santa Monica Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA

The Palms Bar is located N the heart of West Hollywood, a block away from La Cienega Blvd on the south side of Santa Monica Blvd. 4 those traveling from outside Los Angeles or who don't want 2 drive after the club and need lodging, there's a Ramada Inn right across the street: http://www.ramadaweho.com/

Free street parking is available as well as a $5 Parking garage next door 2 Palms.
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