Zany pop star Prince is taking on YouTube over unauthorised use of his music.

The singer is launching legal action in a bid to "reclaim his art on the internet".

He wants to ban any unauthorised video clips taken of his performances.

He is believed to be the first major artist to do battle with the online giant.

"These are steps that the ever innovative Prince is taking to reclaim his art on the internet," a spokesman for the star said.

"Prince believes strongly that as an artist the music rights must remain with the artist and thus copyrights should be protected across the board.

"Very few artists have ever taken this kind of action over their rights. Yet Prince has showed time and time again he is ready to challenge the system in new ways to put artists and music first."

The singer has instructed Web Sheriff, a company which specialises in combating online piracy and copyright infringement, to act on his behalf.

Prince is famously protective of his music rights - in the mid-Nineties he changed his name to a squiggle and wrote the word 'slave' on his cheek as part of a contractual wrangle with then record label Warner Bros.

Fans at his recent gigs at The O2 arena in London were banned from taking photographs or video footage on their mobile phones, but many still posted clips on YouTube.

John Giacobbi, managing director of Web Sheriff, said: "Some artists are very relaxed about the use of their image and music on the internet, some less so.

"Prince feels very strongly that people should remember his concerts as they were, not as some grainy mobile phone footage."

He went on: "The vast majority of artists have little or no control over their rights on the internet, with piracy rampant and very little regulation.

"Prince's actions are a brave and pioneering step to challenge the status quo and hand control over internet rights back to the artists."

Web Sheriff has succeeded in taking more than 1,000 unauthorised Prince video clips off YouTube in the past few days, some of them from the O2 gigs.

But Mr Giacobbi said: "As soon as they are taken down, more spring up the next day. The onus is on the artists as opposed to YouTube itself.

"There is zero pornography on YouTube because it is filtered out. It would be perfectly feasible for them to filter out unauthorised music material, but they choose not to do this.

"At the end of the day, if you take copyrighted music and film off YouTube, most of its business would be gone."

Prince is also targeting eBay, amongst others, for selling unauthorised merchandise.

Mr Giacobbi said: "We are not targeting fans who might want to sell their copy of Purple Rain, we are targeting companies in China manufacturing Prince handbags and selling them in their thousands. There is a distinction to be drawn there."

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