Gav said:

not really a myth. Look at housequake.com closed. Why? Prince's people giving them grief over the site.

Just because they did not file a lawsuit just the threat of legal action is pretty poor taste.

^

yes and ?

people putting watermarks over your pictures

i would've been pissed too if i were him

[Edited 5/3/11 18:32pm]

^ HIS pictures ?

Since when did Prince own copyright on pictures taken of him by 3rd parties (outside of contracts)

Besides, I always thought HQ made it very clear why they did that with some pictures (not all) - it was to stop photos being leeched?

freakyfeet said:

^ HIS pictures ?

Since when did Prince own copyright on pictures taken of him by 3rd parties (outside of contracts)

Besides, I always thought HQ made it very clear why they did that with some pictures (not all) - it was to stop photos being leeched?

whoever takes the photo (unless done so as a work for hire) owns it. And it is automatical protected by copyright laws as soon as it has been taken.

freakyfeet said:

^ HIS pictures ?

Since when did Prince own copyright on pictures taken of him by 3rd parties (outside of contracts)

Besides, I always thought HQ made it very clear why they did that with some pictures (not all) - it was to stop photos being leeched?

if i recall correctly all the photographs on there had that watermark on them

they have no right to complain about leeching them since they were never theirs

to begin with

i honestly think Prince was right about being pissed off about that

i don't think he would mind about his pictures being on there if they didn't have watermarks on them

[Edited 5/4/11 9:12am]

Dewrede said:

freakyfeet said:

^ HIS pictures ?

Since when did Prince own copyright on pictures taken of him by 3rd parties (outside of contracts)

Besides, I always thought HQ made it very clear why they did that with some pictures (not all) - it was to stop photos being leeched?

if i recall correctly all the photographs on there had that watermark on them

they have no right to complain about leeching them since they were never theirs

to begin with

i honestly think Prince was right about being pissed off about that

i don't think he would mind about his pictures being on there if they didn't have watermarks on them

[Edited 5/4/11 9:12am]

So Prince's only problem with controlling fan sites has been over watermarking of photos ?

Why don't you think he'd have had problems with pictures without watermarks - why did he threaten prince.org and others then ?

... my problem with it, is that if you are using Prince's like-ness or the NPG Logo for financial gain that that would warrant a cease and desist letter. & as we all know, or SHOULD know that it is not Prince going after anyone legally speaking, it would be Universal like Gav said earlier.

freakyfeet said:

just1lousydime said:

EleanorK said:

Can he sue you for using his song titles?

He might sue you if you breathe too much of his air.

Oooh greedy much?

OnlyNDaUsa said:

freakyfeet said:

Why don't you think he'd have had problems with pictures without watermarks - why did he threaten prince.org and others then ?

Chichi out the Org gallary. It once had 100s of prince photos

Exactly

I think that's freakyfeet's point - the watermark thing is just an excuse - it's all about control, not copyright.

[Edited 5/4/11 23:46pm]

... it's been so long since the PFU fiasco that I foget if prince.org and Housequake.com ever fully disclosed what happened, then again I may have ignored it at the time.

eireboy34 said:

ALL I know is I miss HOUSEQUAKE.com very much...

HQ.com was the BEST fan community every artist could ever dream of having.

And Prince was pissing on them, very sad.

HQ was far better than this (the Org) will ever be.....

their news section was incredible, and the fans there just knew what they were talking about, hard facts.

Damn those were the days, not anymore.

HQ.com --------- R.I.P.

thedance said:

HQ was far better than this (the Org) will ever be.....

PurpleLove7 said:

... it's been so long since the PFU fiasco that I foget if prince.org and Housequake.com ever fully disclosed what happened, then again I may have ignored it at the time.

The terms of the settlement agreed included a clause that prohibits further disclosure.

Gav said:

PurpleLove7 said:

... it's been so long since the PFU fiasco that I foget if prince.org and Housequake.com ever fully disclosed what happened, then again I may have ignored it at the time.

The terms of the settlement agreed included a clause that prohibits further disclosure.

SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ???

Say what ...

Housequake got sued or at least made to close by Prince's people due to showing pictures with their own HQ watermarks on which wasn't legal. Its a shame HQ did that as they had previously come to an arrangement with his team about allowing photos in general, so they overstepped the mark it seemed.

MOquake is there but I don't know if its run by Aaron.

[Edited 5/9/11 10:03am]

TheFreakerFantastic said:

Housequake got sued or at least made to close by Prince's people due to showing pictures with their own HQ watermarks on which wasn't legal. Its a shame HQ did that as they had previously come to an arrangement with his team about allowing photos in general, so they overstepped the mark it seemed.

MOquake is there but I don't know if its run by Aaron.

[Edited 5/9/11 10:03am]

Not sure where you got this assumption from but in all the legal issues that HQ had with Prince, the "watermark" issue never came up at all.

Gav said:

TheFreakerFantastic said:

Housequake got sued or at least made to close by Prince's people due to showing pictures with their own HQ watermarks on which wasn't legal. Its a shame HQ did that as they had previously come to an arrangement with his team about allowing photos in general, so they overstepped the mark it seemed.

MOquake is there but I don't know if its run by Aaron.

[Edited 5/9/11 10:03am]

Not sure where you got this assumption from but in all the legal issues that HQ had with Prince, the "watermark" issue never came up at all.

I don't know all the facts about it, but I remember going from agreeing with HQ to thinking they had pushed Prince too far. However, they did provide a good service and its never good to see fansites being closed down, especially such a good one (although i've always been more of a prince.org/PPML fan).

Can you enlighten me further and do you know what happened to Aaron Sikkink, is he still about?

[Edited 5/9/11 14:20pm]

TheFreakerFantastic said:

MOquake is there but I don't know if its run by Aaron.

Gav and the MQ team are detailed here:

http://www.moquake.com/fo...de=leaders

langebleu said:

TheFreakerFantastic said:

MOquake is there but I don't know if its run by Aaron.

Gav and the MQ team are detailed here:

http://www.moquake.com/fo...de=leaders

Thanks Langebleu...i can't see Aaron's name there anymore so it was worth a look.

Gav...any chance of publicy setting the record straight with housequake and why it had to close or is this covered by the cease and desist?

TheFreakerFantastic said:

langebleu said:

Gav and the MQ team are detailed here:

http://www.moquake.com/fo...de=leaders

Thanks Langebleu...i can't see Aaron's name there anymore so it was worth a look.

Gav...any chance of publicy setting the record straight with housequake and why it had to close or is this covered by the cease and desist?

You can read about it here.

http://prince.org/wiki/Housequake_(site)

including a statement from Gav.

It explains that it was Aaron's decision to close the site, but also goes some small way to explain demands that were being made of a site owner who was seeking to provide a serious non-commercial independent outlet for the fan community to discuss Prince's professional work and career.

Edit - it looks like access to that page is no longer available - a google search of this site, however, confirms the above through the various threads and statements posted here.

.

[Edited 5/9/11 16:19pm]

Thanks Langebleu.... I think Aaron did a good job and its a shame this situation persuaded him to close it but I can understand the reasons.

MoQuake is pretty cool so at least its in good hands.

Gav said:

802 said:

So it was all a myth. Good news.

I wouldn't go so far as calling it a myth.

Using various agencies and lawyers to aggresively pursue your fans for minor infringments is not normal behaviour for any artist.

OK, there is a line between threatening to sue your fans and actually taking them to court but the only real reason only one has made it to this point is becuase a kind fan (Alex Hahn) went to the trouble of persuading his boss to do the work pro-bono.

Only once PFU responded to the Housequake / prince.org / Princefams threats in a confident (and very public) manner did Prince's representatives back down. In all other cases, the fans have backed down, mainly due to fear of liability - something which in my opinion has been exploited.

OK, there are genuine cases where people making money from fans should be supported (one thing I personally abhor is "free" bootleg releases being resold) but these have historically been in the minority.

Gav nails it by mentioning Alex Hahn. I've said it before and I'll say it again, we wouldn't have sites like the org, etc. if it wasn't for Alex stepping up and taking on Goliath... pro bono. He got a lot of crap for having some dumb errors in his book but basically his book is one of the better ones written and he is worthy of praise from fans for his work, both in researching and in protecting our rights to discuss Prince's music.

thedance said:

ALL I know is I miss HOUSEQUAKE.com very much...

HQ.com was the BEST fan community every artist could ever dream of having.

And Prince was pissing on them, very sad.

HQ was far better than this (the Org) will ever be.....

their news section was incredible, and the fans there just knew what they were talking about, hard facts.

Damn those were the days, not anymore.

HQ.com --------- R.I.P.

Instead we now have the mighty Dr Funkenberry. Just awesome. Nice one P.

But please don't put down the org. Learned people reside here.

And it's busy in comparison.

i havent been sued but here's a video about how a mom got sued by prince, wowww.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...UbOXpsH0PA