Prince to Twitter: Take down those vines

Twitter has taken down eight Vine videos associated with the artist Prince, after his record label sent a letter warning of copyright infringement.

The notice, posted on Chilling Effects last week and noticed by The Next Web today, described the Vines in question as "unauthorized recordings" and "unauthorized synchronizations." The label, NPG Records, requested that Twitter immediately remove the Vines and any future Vines featuring Prince. The Vine is a mobile service that allows people to create and share short, looping videos.

The links to the Vines in the request no longer work. A Twitter spokesman said the company doesn't comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons. Instead, he pointed to Twitter's copyright policy, which also applies to Vine.

"If we decide to remove or disable access to the material, we will notify the affected user(s) after removing or disabling access to the material, provide them with access to the reporter's complaint along with instructions on how to file a counter-notice, and forward a copy of the complaint to Chilling Effects," the policy reads.

It's not too surprising that Prince would go after Vines, even if the creators aren't making any money off the 6-second videos. Prince's label puts a lot of effort into enforcing his copyright.

As The Week pointed out, Prince often clamps down on YouTube videos of his performances. If you search for a popular Prince song on the video-sharing site, you most likely will come across a silent video of him performing.