The pint-sized popster Prince has lawsuits planned for YouTube, eBay, and Swedish torrent search site The Pirate Bay over unauthorized uses of his music.

Prince Pops Off At YouTube, eBay

Throughout his long-running battles with the recording industry, Prince always seemed more enlightened than certain other major acts that took the Internet as a threat rather than a potentially lucrative marketing aid. His recent UK giveaway of nearly three million copies of his latest album, "Planet Earth," delighted fans and likely rankled the suits in the music industry.

His latest move comes right out of the RIAA playbook. A Reuters report said Prince will sue YouTube, eBay, and The Pirate Bay among other sites as an effort to "reclaim his art on the Internet."

Prince’s website doesn’t note the lawsuit, but we’re sure the Pirate Bay will make it part of their legal threats page if and when it arrives for the customary merciless mocking the Swedish torrent tracker gives these notices.

His claims mirror those of other content providers: YouTube can filter out porn and pedophile content, it should be able to figure out when copyrighted material has been uploaded as part of a video. YouTube has always answered these claims by pointing to both the Telecommunications Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

YouTube has been developing technology to automate the process of detecting and removing copyrighted content. That process has taken a long time without bearing any results.

It should be interesting if the case comes to court. We really want to hear what Prince has to say if and when a YouTube lawyer asks the Paisley One what value he places on his work, considering the CD giveaway he promoted in the UK.

For those who might be wondering, "Planet Earth" is no "Purple Rain." Idolator talked about the latest from Prince in July.