Andrew,

U have posted on the message boards that u r sending out MP3 files
taken from the music club to other people. This is in clear violation of
the club terms and conditions and ur membership has been suspended. U
cannot redistribute NPGMC music in any form.



Love4oneanother,
NPGMC
www.NPGMusicClub.com
+ + + + + + + + + + + + +
If u r a member, please visit the MEMBER HELP forum in the UTELLUS
message board 4 assistance with the club.

***for the record, i posted that i had sent mp3's to other members who had PM'd me about not having heard the "reflection" song - b/c they were paying members. and i added, "PaisleyPark9, if you have a problem with that, let me know"

i guess this is PP9's way of letting me know? that's a fucking joke. i WILL get my money back, and then i WILL join with someone else's name, and i'll post even MORE then i did before, those pathetic fuckers.
[This message was edited Sat May 17 19:36:13 PDT 2003 by theblueangel]

Sorry to hear that this happened to you, blueangel.

Although your posts over there may have been perceived by some as antagonistic or negative or whatever, I KNOW how much you love the music. Is this temporary or permanent? If it is permanent, thank you for making things more interesting over there for me.

well, all i know is what's in that bullshit "love4oneanother" e-mail up there. all i did was share the song with other PAYING MEMBERS of the club. how is that a violation?

those purple kool-aid drinkin bastids... i saw that particular post over there. matter of fact, didn't somebody ask 4 the file over there in the first place?

ya think they'd have a rule that applies 2 askin 4 stuff as well.

handclaps, i'm not sure if someone asked for the file or not. they may have...i know i've seen people ask for it before. i wonder if they got booted too? (not that i think they SHOULD, just wondering)

i really wish i could stop liking this man's music, but i just CAN'T. damn it.

Prince doesn't want you to send out MP3 files of his music!!!??? Come on, man. A third grader could have told you that one. Get a clue.

At 06:32 PM 5/17/2003 -0700, you wrote:

You didn't sign your name so I don't know who I'm writing this to:

I did NOT violate any terms of the club. I only shared the song with members of the club who contacted me through PMs, like i said in my post. anticipating that you might take this insane point of view on the matter, i also asked PP9 to let me know if s/he had a problem with that.

If you are suspending my membership then you WILL refund my $25 immediately. Otherwise, I'll call the credit card company and get it back that way. You have three business days from the date of this correspondence (May 17, 2003) to respond with your intentions regarding either this refund or an immediate reinstatement of service.

Andrew

Andrew,

How could u possibly think it would b okay 2 send people music from the Music Club?

This is in the Terms and Conditions U agreed 2 when u joined the club:

"Use of Club Content. All Content is owned by the Club and/or its Content providers and may only be used for your private, personal, noncommercial use. You are not allowed to make or transfer a copy of Club Content to someone else or use any part of the Content for any public or commercial use. If you disrespect the Club rules then you no longer have permission to use the Club and you are required to delete all of your back up copies of Club Content. The Club reserves all rights not expressly granted under this Agreement."

This has ben the policy from day one. So in fact u HAVE violated the terms of the Club. We r merely doing xactly what we said we would do.

U could apologize and promise not 2 do it again instead of getting defensive and calling us "insane".

Again, you have given me no name to address this to:

You're kidding, right? You honestly don't realize that most people do NOT feel that sharing music with ANOTHER PAYING MEMBER is a violation of ANYTHING?

YOU should be apologizing. So have you decided on the refund or the reinstatement of service?

Andrew

all i can say is, paisleypark9's moderation skills have all the tact of darth vader in a g-string, giving lapdances to the easter bunny at eurodisney.

anyone who bitches about harsh moderation up in here doesn't know how good we have it on the org. and believe me, i never thought i'd utter those words.

"Use of Club Content. All Content is owned by the Club and/or its Content providers and may only be used for your private, personal, noncommercial use. You are not allowed to make or transfer a copy of Club Content to someone else or use any part of the Content for any public or commercial use. If you disrespect the Club rules then you no longer have permission to use the Club and you are required to delete all of your back up copies of Club Content. The Club reserves all rights not expressly granted under this Agreement."

The argument to this clause could be that your use of the Reflection file was indeed "private", in that you were NOT offering the file to anyone outside the club, and you were NOT offering it for trade or for a fee. Your offer was internal, within the membership of the club, and it included an opportunity for the moderator to contact you if that posed a problem.

I'm not saying this is a TIGHT argument, but it is indeed an argument. However, you and I both know they're not trying to hear it.




CONtractual edit
[This message was edited Sat May 17 19:15:48 PDT 2003 by Anxiety]

thanks anxiety. that's what i was thinking, just not in official CONtract language.

i mean, the irony in prince's club being such a stickler over sharing music (free the music) with other members and using a CONtract to back up their idiocy (talk to mayte)...

i mean, it's so rich that you really can't expect the numb-skulls at the club to get it.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Don't worry. It's comin'.

dude, you're like school on sunday. No class.

theblueangel said:

What i want to know is: What about all the talk over there about the unreleased music? People over there are discussing boots and everything. Do they get the boot, too? Before anyone jumps on me. I truly don't think anyone should get booted. Thank you.

NPGMC wrote:
Do u promise not 2 violate the terms of the Club?

***

Sure, I promise. I have my hand over my heart and everything.

Andrew
[This message was edited Sat May 17 19:35:58 PDT 2003 by theblueangel]

theblueangel said:

Since you've been doing nothing but pretty much "double daring" them to do something to you, with your attitudes and your posts, since the club re-opened. Why are you now acting shocked and surprised that they've finally had enough of your bullshit. And unless those supposed "members" you were providing music to come forward in defense of you (let's see how much "you" mean to them now), you won't have a snowballs chance in hell of getting a refund. I'm certain every thread you've ever posted has been saved, and you've given them all the evidence they'll ever need to justify your banning. Accept it and move on!

NPGMC POSITIVITY POLICE PLEASE NOTE: I changed all of the mentions of your organization to read NPGMC, so as not to violate the following agreement in the CONtract:

The names "NPG Music Club" and "NPG", as well as the other names used by the Club, may not be used by you without the Club's written permission.

theblueangel said:

Were your fingers crossed behind your back?

Okay then. U r reinstated.
In the future, we ask that u please do not share files from the music club.

***

uh, yeah, you guys handled that REAL well.

[Snipped. Ian]

i find it very interesting that certain posts of mine seem to have mysteriously vanished. hmmm.

anyway. ok, so i guess i'm back in. before anyone starts slamming on me for crying wolf, i truly believed that i was kicked out. what would you have thought?

if they think this is going to "calm me down", they've never met a sicilian.
[This message was edited Sat May 17 19:53:17 PDT 2003 by theblueangel]

Okay, as much as I love mudslinging and namecalling (and I'm not just saying that to be flip, YA FILTHY BASTARDS), maybe this is a time to really...and I mean REALLY...define what it is we feel we can fairly expect, and what we consider fair/unfair/wack/un-wack/what-have-you.

To get all Kier Kirby on y'all, deeep-ending on how ya see a thing, the glass is full, or is it empty? (luv that song)

The only thing we were offered this year was an opportunity to "suspend our xpectations". The money we were asked to cough up is defined as a "donation". Of course, most donations are typically pay-what-you-will with a suggested amount and predetermined initiatives for different giving levels, and NPGMC sho' nuff doesn't look like it's a non-profit organization, but what can ya do...they're framing our "donations" this year as a show of support, not an exchange of money for product. Unless you call some flash animation and streaming audio "product". Which, well, apparently some folks DO. But some of those same purple moonie sycophants would also consider a turd in the mail to be a divine godsend as long as it had "LOVEGOD" scrawled on the box.

Meanwhile...caveat emptor much, folks?

Here's my wishful-thinking, "gee everything's gonna be okay" take on the deal: Prince has been a pioneer in using the Internet as an alternative to being a major label artist. Granted, others were doing it before him, and others - with far less money and resources - are doing it much better and with much less grief on both the side of the artist and the consumer. BUT. It can still be argued that he's feeling his way around in the dark with this venture, and he's taking the concept to extremes to find new ways of getting his work out there. Maybe there's a method to his meandering, maybe it's just more Crystal Ball foolishness (which was itself arguably a bumpy ride of an experiment...keyword: ARGUABLY).

The bottom line, to me, is that we gotta let 'em know. There's a lot of criticism from the "purple flock" about "whining". And, I'll admit that some of our frustrations have been voiced in a way that could be seen as heavy-handed to some. But as several folks have pointed out, there's always been a POINT, and this frustration isn't a new feeling, nor has it materialized out of nowhere. We all know the drill. Same thing, brand new drag. We're all for Prince's Brave New World, but come on. After a while, it hurts to sit down.

Letting the club know what it'll take to renew memberships next year, and to buy the products they offer, and to recommend the club to friends, is what it's all about. Prince wants to personalize his relationship by letting the "fams" into his house? Well, if he serves up dinner without giving us silverware, or lets us sleep over in a room with no blankets on the bed, wouldn't ya maybe say something to someone about it? Metaphors are fun things, ain't they?

I like the added dimension that the "U Tell Us" boards and the chat have brought to the fan community. I could say the same about housequake.com, as it brings people together via a different perspective than the org or AMP...and all these options are...what?...FREE!

So, heck, I dunno. I could go on. But I won't. It's late, I wanna work on some writing before SNL comes on, and my ranting downstairs neighbor is distracting the fuck outta me. So I'll get back to the original question:

What exactly is it we WANT from NPGMC, anyway?

My answer is one silly little word: Music.

DeVaniti said:

The healing begins the moment you call Parkside.

theblueangel said:

No, actually I'm a quite happy, well-adjusted, brutally honest person. Telling it like it is, flat out, can be hard but someone has to do it.

Never understood that phrase, "brutally honest". Why is brutality needed for something that's supposed to set you free?

NPGMC knows they can't control filesharing.
What happened here is that you were stupid enough to talk about filesharing on the npgmc while you full well know that NPGMC's prime directive has always been: no sharing whatsoever.
The rules this year again clearly state "You are not allowed to make or transfer a copy of Club Content to someone else".
By talking about it publicly you gave NPGMC no other option than to respond according to their 2003 membership rules.

You should have taken the option to apologize.

I'd prefer being a client than a donator.
I'd prefer to get music rather than "knowledge" (huh?).
I'd prefer to be treated as an adult rather than as a child (censorship in the chatroom).


Delores

Anxiety said:

You know Anxiety, I was gonna ask a question about that phrase but I didn't want to come under personal attack.

Anxiety said:

Because the truth hurts, knowing that and not being afraid to say it anyway, makes me brutally honest.

but m3taverse, i did nothing wrong, so i didn't apologize. yet they still let me back in!! IMAGINE THAT.

m3taverse said: