Where are many of the gallery images?
Hi all… some of you may be aware of the WebSheriff stuff going on, which has affected most of the big Prince fan sites, with each getting a DMCA infringement notice. Basically, this is a letter from an authorized agent of Prince, saying that something on the site infringes his copyright, and must be removed. The interesting thing is that, as part of the DMCA law in the USA, the letter is sent to the service provider, not the site owner directly. So for example, the company that we rent servers from, got the letter and passed it along to us. The letter basically stated (I will include more details later), that there were ~3,500 images in our ‘gallery’ section, that infringed Prince’s copyrights, trademark, or other intellectual property. The way the DMCA notice works, is that the site owner has two choices: 1. take the material down, or 2. file a counter notice to say the material is not infringing, and that they accept being sued within 14 days.
Now, there’s no way that all the images we were asked to remove were infringing–it included images of people’s tattoos, their cars, scans from books that had nothing to do with Prince, newspaper clippings, wire image bureau images, etc. Lots of stuff which might be copyrighted, or not, but certainly, images and images of items, that Prince does not own the rights to (under the DMCA, the rights owner of the specific item being asked to be removed must file the complaint). There were also other problems with the specifics of the request that lead us at prince.org to believe it’s invalid, and we’re following up on that angle as well. Put simply, we believe this to be a bogus, incomplete, and certainly overly broad, even fairly sloppy, request. (In this article I don’t want to get into the “is this fair” or “why is Prince doing this” issues; that’s the topic for another day, and another message.)
That said, you may be surprised to learn that I have decided to temporarily make these images unavailable, nearly 3,500 of them. I would prefer not to, of course, and believe there is no legitimate reason why I should… but this is a purely practical matter. Our service provider, the good people (really!) we rent servers from, aren’t legally in a position to debate the correctness of each image and the request–this isn’t their primary role. They will simply take the ’safe’ road and shut down our server (or something similar, with the same effect) unless we remove them, or else they become liable to be sued. The DMCA is imbalanced in this regard, but this is the reality (remember, this was enacted by the same people who brought you the Patriot Act!) So, essentially, I’ve disabled access to these images so that while prince.org can secure a thorough legal analysis, we aren’t shut down. After all, the image gallery is a small part of the site, and I wouldn’t want to risk having the chat and forums go offline while we wrangle over this… there is principle, and honor, involved here, but this site exists to serve you, the community visitor and site member, and if we’re offline we’re not serving anyone, no pun intended 
So, that’s the quick update… there’s fewer images in the gallery right now, but they’re not gone, we’re just working through legal silliness. The site will continue to run and provide the unofficial, semi-random, relatively unfettered and hopefully entertaining discussions it always has. Watch the staff blog for continuing updates…
[Edited to fix the grammar on the title... feh! -Ben]
October 20th, 2007 at 12:45 am
It was a matter of time. And it is too ridiculous for words.
October 20th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Thanks Ben. I love Prince but I’m not liking him much these days.
October 20th, 2007 at 10:58 am
Thanks for your honesty on this. Seems like the right decision for now but glad also that you are looking into it.
October 20th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Gee-Wiz, I can’t wait to see the end result of all his recent Internet activity.
October 20th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Now, that was a pretty creative approach…contacting the server.
October 20th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Pretty soon we’ll be shutting this site down due to the fact that our words are infringing on P’s personal feelings and he needs to be able to control it all……… and we’re going to give him to him. Or, we could just say fuck you – your don’t run us or this free site dickhead.
October 20th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
What’s next? Suing People who have Prince tats??? lol
October 21st, 2007 at 12:25 am
why (on his part) do it like that? it just makes him look like a bully and a jerk
for threatening legal action over stuff he has no rights over. !@#*&!
will be interesting to see what the next moves will be. as always, much respect, ben.
October 21st, 2007 at 3:33 am
Good Luck with this Ben!
Greetz from Holland!
RaS (the guy u met in Malmo!)
October 21st, 2007 at 9:44 am
Thanks for keeping us informed, Ben! I think you and the mods over here do an outstanding job at what you do for the Prince fan community. We know it’s a thankless job but we appreciate you guys more than we probably would or could ever say!
With that said, I think it’s high time that the fan community stand up to Prince and his bullying cohorts! There has to be some kind of legal recourse that we can partake in collectively as a group. There is strength and power in numbers. Let’s quit all the bullsh*t squabbling and bickering and show Prince that you do not ever bite the hand that feeds you. For all intent and purposes, it has been the hands of the Prince fan community, OUR HANDS that have fed him and kept him from the fate of washed up has been. Prince seriously needs to be reminded of that!
October 21st, 2007 at 4:24 pm
This is one evil purple midget we’re dealing with here.
October 21st, 2007 at 5:33 pm
LOL
October 21st, 2007 at 6:30 pm
This isn’t Life or Death. I’ll give examples of what is:
Someone coming in for a biopsy, after being in remission, only to find out metastatic cancer had invaded the entire abdomen. RX is exhausted.
A 5 year old, sleeping on the couch in the living room, and killed as a result of a drive-by. It wasn’t meant to be that way, just, the random angle hit major organs.
This is my past week.
This site, along with HQ will survive.
Minus any Prince controlled data.
It’s all relative.
October 21st, 2007 at 6:35 pm
It’s like this new mean Prince ate up the old cool Prince.
October 21st, 2007 at 8:26 pm
LMAO!!! Is anyone suprised this happened? I called it 3 months ago.
October 22nd, 2007 at 8:22 am
Thank you for keeping us informed Ben, and for being level headed in your approach to dealing with this.
And as always, thank you for the time and work you put into prince.org
NBJ
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:31 pm
I agree that Prince should not bite the many hands that have fed him for years. Being a fan is one thing, but we shouldn’t be bullied by him or his people just for being his fan
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:23 pm
This is a 3-legged run in the same direction…..what’s the goal of Prince.org?
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:59 am
“Independent and unofficial Prince fan community site”.
The minute you have an outside force dictating what you can and can not say it impedes with that mission.
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:27 am
Oh well life goes on!!!
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Shouldn’t that be “Where’re many of the gallery images”?
Or is this some kind of l33tspeak?
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:16 pm
^^ ass alert
October 24th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Yep, take his picture…sued! Audio record his show…Sued! Video his show…Sued! ( That’s the, ” when it’s over press save out the window then, eh!” ) look him in the eye…Sued! Bebo him…Sued! Myspace him…Sued! Youtube him…Sued! Fart smells of 3121!? Double Sued. He really needs to get a grip sometimes, honestly.
October 25th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Thanks Ben for keeping the site up to par with whats happening
I really hope that this is a hittin’ 50 crisis, I have lost both parents, got divorced twice, lost a child,having no sleep, working my butt to the bone Prince. He has been through ALOT in the last decade…and because of that when he puts on these tantrums for control of his artistry my heart becomes sad for him.
.
He is trying to get total control of his buisness because maybe he has relitivlely little in his personal life.
But like the great uncle of spider man said “With great power comes great responsibility” and err in saying (without sounding silly) that Prince is charged with the responsibility for giving respect to his fans- and he is failing right now
I’ll keep him in my prayers.
October 26th, 2007 at 2:06 am
I see my tattoo. inked on2 my body has been removed from the gallery, it is also my avatrar, don’t I OWN it ???? Do the powers that be want my purple symbol removed from my chest as well ???
UNjoyful
October 26th, 2007 at 7:57 am
Prince quit being a bitch!!!! Clearly you shouldn’t be wasting your time and energy on what images your fan site is providing to your fans…you should be producing something better than that crap Planet Earth you just released. Get over yourself!!!
October 28th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Can you say cencorship? an ugly word
October 28th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Invasion of the purple picture snatchers!
Let’s keep this on the DL, you don’t want him coming through your computer screen and cleaning out your hard drive ?
October 29th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Just waiting to see when my Prince pics will leave myspace. Still there as of today.
November 5th, 2007 at 3:00 am
Hang tight Ben. All true Funk rebels unite against overzealous, egotistical midget killjoy and keep up the good fight.
November 5th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
I fully support the org and all the prince sites. This crap needs to stop. Prince is such a little fascist.
November 5th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
November 5th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
The DMCA is really a problem when you look at the consequences. Any one can attack you using it and as it supposes you to be guilty you have to remove all materials if you are a small structure. Too bad P is taking this way an loosing is own fan’s respect.
November 7th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
I predicted this ten years ago when the “all sites must join together” crap begun. Peopel said I was exagerrating. Since then time after time Prince has sent out legal notices for the dumbest crap, and each time they became more ridiculous.
November 8th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Censorship is just a word but if u guys turn over it’ll be the only word that’s heard (oops, think I just infringed). I have no problem with wanting to prevent someone cashing in on you, your music, your image etc but a law that allows this censorship against fans who just want to share is just anti-democratic, repressive and luckily enough, probably unsustainable…
November 8th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
And all good things, they say, never last…….
and love, it isn’t love until it’s past.
let go, boys and girls, let go…
November 10th, 2007 at 9:01 am
Prince- You are a mother fucker!… Censor that bitch! It’s always the fans that suffer thru your fucked up ego bullshit everytime…you think by giving away a free cd that your doing the world a favor. FUCK U! One pissed off EX fan down..hopefully a million more to go.
November 11th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Well Prince, if you don’t want us looking at you anymore then we won’t. If you don’t like being adored and having your fans dish our well earned money on not even good music these days then good for you. I can just forget you just like that. I have been a faithful fan from the very first time I heard you and now you and your selfish attitude can just kiss my ass GOOD BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No longer a Prince fan……………………Ramona
November 14th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
I think it is a little silly and alot immature to fly off the handle
and start to call him names and demean him before we know anything
if you no longer want to be a fan
it is up to you’i can’t say if this is true i will not be far behind you
but then leave quietly and close the door
it is actually insulting to the rest of us that are here waiting it out.
and it is an insult to Ben and the others who have decided to stay put leave the site up and support it only to have people use it to
lash at prince in some “personal way”
besides if he really is suing fans – its pointless because he obviously doens’t care what you think of him
I for one – do not believe it. first lets find the root of the issue it is not pictures of our tattoos or personalized plates.
I am not saying you should not have a voice and cry out that it sucks
but i think sinking to calling prince a bitch or a midget
is disrespectful to all of us, and ben, to use this site and to do it here after they is standing up for all of us.
November 15th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
I destroyed all of my ?-rince music and merchandise. I don’t plan on buying anymore ?-rince stuff anymore. I am emancipated.
November 16th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Im not one of these so called fans who like’s to think everything is rosey….but! ..things are rosey ..Prince hasn’t had so much publicity for donkeys years …he is a cleaver boy …just when he gave us 21 at the O2 he keeps the bubble alive with his look at me im famous ,and I will sue your ass line…. not the smartest move to kick your fans in the teeth…still all this will soon blow over and six months down the line when we are all listening to the latest offering it will all look so pointless by then…..so for now can we all just chill out!! ……. Let’s talk About The Music!……….He You and I aint going nowhere…..xx
November 23rd, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Give me all of the Prince you can!
November 30th, 2007 at 3:04 am
Yup Prince loves his fans~
December 6th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Fan’s pictures of Prince are not his property. The photographer owns the copyright to their photo and if they wish to free it up for public use, then Prince and Co. can’t do anything about that. The subject of a photograph has no ownership of the picture whatsoever and should have no say-so in the handling of said picture. All concert photos should be reinstated.
December 8th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
keep us informed and let us know what happens with this mess!
December 29th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Maybe he’s just a miserable person and wants company.