Sponsored by
Taxi driver clashes with pop legend
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."
An email from YouTube told Paul: "This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the material as a result of a third-party notification by Prince/NPG claiming that this material is infringing its copyright."
Prince fanatic Paul, who even spent his wedding night watching the star, said the saga would not stop him enjoying his pop hero's music. And he still has videos showing the streets of his home town on the site.
Paul said: "I was at school when I started being a fan and back then he was everything. All my money went on his records."
A spokesman for YouTube said: "Every original content creator on YouTube is a copyright holder, from amateur users to the largest media companies.
"We strive to provide a clear, transparent process for all copyright holders to follow, which is both flexible and fast for copyright holders, but still fair and transparent to all of our users."
>> Follow Paul's entertaining blog, Adventures of a taxi driver
>> Vote in our latest web poll
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Preston
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Light snow
Temperature: 2 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 3 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: West
