Bryan Adams Hires Web Sheriff to Round up Renegade Fan Sites

Online fans of Bryan Adams who visit his Dutch fan site will get the following message: "At this moment, we are not able to show you the website." Clicks to other unofficial Adams websites will yield similar results. Or the page is "under construction." Or, as is the case for bryanadams.nu, they'll be a "problem loading page." Do not reset your server and don't panic -- it's been a minute since Adams topped the charts, but the Canadian rocker is still happily recording and touring. These days, he's also protecting his online rights.

The Register, a UK-based "Sci/Tech News" outlet, reports that Adams enlisted the services of Web Sheriff to round up unofficial Bryan Adams websites and issue warnings to their owners: take down any unlicensed material, make sure you're not violating any copyrights and delete any link that leads to unacceptable (pirate or malicious) sites. Last year, Prince hired Web Sheriff for similar but more aggressive enforcement. At Adams request, Web Sheriff is politely asking the owners of these fan pages to sign a rights agreement before re-launching their sites.

So far, most have been cooperative. After all, Bryan Adams fans have never been known as the rabble-rouser type.