I recently uploaded a video to YouTube of me playing a cover of "Nothing Compares 2 U," a song written by Prince.

YouTube took the video down after a few days. Apparently Prince's publishing people decided to kick it like a bunch of copyright crybabies.

I'm not the only one Prince has whined about. He's tried to get his own fan sites shut down.

That's too bad. Not just for me, and not just for Prince fans, but for Prince himself too.

Let me explain:

1. I spent a few years playing around New York City, first at open mics and then as a member of the New York Songwriters Circle. If I was playing a set, I often closed with "Nothing Compares 2 U."

Multiple people have told me that that reminded them of the song, and that they downloaded the original version of the song after hearing my cover.

So, in reality, I was giving Prince some free advertising. By stopping me from covering his song, he cuts off a source of free advertising.

2. The real opportunity for Prince is to encourage people to remix stuff, and to use remixes to create a culture and a community. This can then be used to sell physical products, advertising, tickets to events, and who knows what else down the road. That's the business model in the post-matrix economy.

The Unspoken Problem: Ego

One of the upspoken problems that's serving as a barrier of sorts towards our move to an open economy is ego. In spite of the economic justification that open systems are more economically efficient, they are often shunned by intellectual property creators, who feel the need to control, and who don't want to let go.

Too bad. Get over it. You'll make more money this way anyway.

But Prince is choosing not to realize that. Somehow I doubt Prince and the New Power Generation are going to be able to create the new power needed in this generation -- the generation after the matrix collapses.