News.com reports that Prince plans to file suit in the U.S. also plans to file "suit in the next few days against The Pirate Bay in France, a country known for tough copyright laws, and Sweden, where The Pirate Bay is based. In addition, Prince is preparing to take civil action against some of the Israel-based companies that advertise on The Pirate Bay, according to John Giacobbi, Web Sheriff's president."

According to several sources in the UK media, Prince's UK promotor AEG issued a statement about the controvery surrounding allegations that Prince was threatening fansites with ligitagation. The statement reads: Prince is not suing his fans, is not looking to penalise fans and nor is he looking to or inhibiting freedom of speech in any way. In fact, he is simply looking to provide Prince fans with exclusive music and images entirely free of charge, and bypassing unofficial and unauthorised phoney fan sites that exploit both consumers and artists.

The action taken earlier this week was not to shut down fansites, or control comment in any way. The issue was simply to do with in regards to copyright and trademark of images and only images, and no lawsuits have been filed.

The three sites in question have falsely positioned themselves as representatives of millions of Prince fans. In fact, many have come out in support of Prince at his official site and even on the message boards of the unofficial sites in question.

Mediation between the parties is currently resolving the matter.

Prince is breaking new ground as the first artist to take on the world's largest internet pirates bootleggers, including the notorious The Pirate Bay who have been misrepresenting themselves as a site for 'the fans'.

They are in fact exploiting copyrighted material for their commercial gain. The site has flouted constant legal notices from artists and corporations throughout the world while cashing in on advertising monies.

All the time, they keep up the pretence of being an anarchist, 'free music' fansite when it is really a massive money-making venture.