The artist formerly known as Prince is suing a website which published links to a pirated copy of his Xenophobia concert series.

The diminutive pop star is suing Paisley Park Enterprises, which is run by Matthew Lankford from Seattle.

The website, which is devoted to singer Me'Shell Ndegeocello, included "specific information describing which day the unauthorised recording of the Xenophobia concert took place", Prince's production company told news website Ananova.

Lankford has denied violating copyright as he had not put up any illegal files. "What happened is that I put up links to other websites that had files on them," he explained.

He claims to be very upset about the action because Prince is one of his favourite artists, and said that he has wiped any mention of Prince from his site.

"One of my favourite artists is coming after me for promoting him on my website," said Lankford.