They got a letter forcing them to remove all the videos

http://www.housequake.com...adid=81258

i guess no longer can get any video!!!

The lawyer from universal!!

Its not the record company universal its the publishing company universal which prince has used for a long time even when he was at sony his royalties were collected by universal publishing
[Edited 2/15/07 15:01pm]

More legal troubles. This is so rediculous and sad. The video section was an amazing place, and let me see things that I thought I'd missed out on forever.

asg said:

See here is what pisses me off. If Prince was making his live/videos available, legitimately for purchase I would be happy to buy them. But to not release anything and then penalize those who are sharing crappy blurry versions to fans, with no intention of making money, is just crazy.

Other great bands happily share videos for free of their performances. The only reason I can thing that Prince would be doing this is an absolute obsession with making money above any other possible benefit to his fans.

Release the material Prince!

Damn... That was the place to see Prince's and his associates rare videos.

Seriously I was suprised that it have been up all of this time with little legal threat.

That sucks.

I knew they were unauthorized, but that still sucks.

Aw man! I used to watch videos all of the time. God dammit!
I'm really mad at Prince right now. Forget Vegas.

If y'all want help to fill up the time,
there's a "What Prince Songs Do You listen To When You're Feeling Down" thread over in the General Discussion forum.

Prince really doesn't know what's good for him does he?

AsianPrnce777 said:

i hate this account.

Awww, this is a real shame. I'm surprised they let them keep the video section the last time they had a crack at Housequake over photos, I did think since the site is hosted in the Netherlands (I think) they have different rules on copyright and suchlike that the American law can't touch and that was why they were getting away with it.

Housequake did change the format so that you couldn't save the videos, only see them streamed, in that sense they only way they were giving them away was via the mind, perhaps the Paisley Police will sue us for having illegal images in our mind next!

Why are y'all acting all surprised? Knowing Prince the way we (fans) do...you had to know this was coming sooner or later! Just be thankful for the good times and the good videos that you did get to see thanks to the very cool folks over at the Quake.

Show them your support by still visiting the site, even though there aren't any videos. Encourage them to continue on without the Princely visuals.

metalorange said:

Uh oh! Will they take away the lewd Prince fantasies I have locked away in my brain!

What is this world coming to???!!!
[Edited 2/15/07 14:07pm]

I'm surprised they got away with it for so long. Also they put a Housequake logo on all the Prince pictures posted, how can they do that..they don't own copyright to those pictures?

I don't get this at all. So what is the nature of his relationship with Universal?

As I asked on HQ, does Prince have a new master? Does Universal "own" him. What claim would they have to all that old material that was recorded before he ever hooked up with them? This doesn't make sense.

At the end of the day, it is a shame. Unless they plan to offer some alternative, what does it hurt to let FANS view videos of a performer who many of them have financially supported for nearly 30 years? Who were the videos hurting? No one was making a profit from them. Prince fans were simply enjoying Prince videos. Is that a crime?
[Edited 2/15/07 14:28pm]

Awww, that's so sad. I really thought that the site was perfectly safe from the problems YouTube has encountered.

Sure, I restrained myself a great deal and never ran a serious search on videos. The only thing I did find on a subtle search was the Jay Leno interview, which I thought was really cool and all.

But I really liked Housequake because they had the videos. It makes me wonder, though... like what Prince does in his spare time... :gasp: what if he looked on here and found out about Housequake? You'd wonder if he actually does web searches to make sure that people don't post videos of him without permission.

Seriously, that's what it feels like. I'm also kinda conflicted over this though. I thought Housequake was okay since it wasn't exactly YouTube (who Prince clearly has a grudge against)... but apparently not. I just hope he doesn't get to the site where I have access to older videos of his hits. I won't mention which one in case he does read this and finds out about it. Heh.

But I gotta thank Housequake for a second [and third] chance at watching that SNL performance that I made such a big deal about... you hear that, Prince, Housequake was good for one thing!

well i got some of these videos on tape, so FUCK UNIVERSAL, AND FUCK THAT BITCH WHO SENT THE EMAIL. i dont think prince had anything to do with it directly. but cant he just "free the music" like he brags about.

so ill keep watchin my videos. and if i have my friends ovr, we'll b watchin them videos too.

and 2 the that sorry mufukin c.e.o. at universal: i wont share that video of your moms on the corner, selling her mf pussy.

Based on the letter that Aaron posted in that forum, I'd like to believe this is more Universal's doing, especially considering that Prince just aired that thank you commercial last week at the Grammy's, but who knows. (Also, langebleu found an article about that lawyer being involved in similar type of case for U2: http://cache.zoominfo.com...e=Gonzalez ) I guess I can understand Universal wanting to remove the Superbowl performance (but again, why Universal & not the NFL?), but the other stuff was all officially released or taped from televised performances; not 'boots' so why should they care about that?

Otherwise, maybe 3121 is planning on selling video downloads--but I highly doubt it. I can't see Prince ever re-releasing a lot of that stuff--which sucks b/c HQ was the only place to see it. Also, HQ changed the way they streamed it so you couldn't save it (most of the time).

I'm hoping Aaron shut down the entire forum as a precautionary measure and that it will reopen eventually. Remember princefams closed their photo gallery but eventually opened it again....

bellanoche said:

Oh just a little something called a 5 year Publishing deal that included collecting royalties owed to Prince for ALL of his past work.

SexyBeautifulOne said:

Really? I was unaware of this. Is this documented somewhere? What does he get out of it other than the headache of dealing with a major record company?

sosgemini said:

This is so fucked up.

dont worry. if prince is behind this 100%, aftr he leaves the planet, univeral will cash in on his ass. so we will get wat we want.

Word is from the HQ owner was that Universal, not Prince and his staff, had made requests to them to take down the videos since Prince is currently under contract with Universal. Therefore under the contract, Universal got all the rights to Prince's shows, appearances, etc.

Fer cryin' out loud, now what???

wat? the grammy performance w/beyonce jus came in2 my possesion. technology is mad cool. hint-hint.

bellanoche said:

It sure is. I do believe we discussed it here when it happened but you can read about it here.

dazedawhile said:

ladygirl99 said:

I see...thanks.

Not a surprise was 2 be expected as Universal Music has been doing this for some time now.

These r just a few links go search google and see about other law suit's.

MySpace was sued by Universal Music November 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/h...160414.stm
Universal Music sues video sites October 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/h...061974.stm
Universal Music Sues Video Sites (Grouper and Bolt) Oct, 17, 2006
http://www.wired.com/news...=rss.index

dazedawhile said:

I never understand how his fans attack him for something he is legally entitled to do..they are his videos, his work. He has every right to do it, or Universal on his behalf.