From Rollingstone.com



As you may have read, as part of their copyright crusade, Prince’s legal staff recently demanded that all images of the Purple One be removed from specific fan Web pages. Several sites banded together to form Prince Fans United, there was a brief pause in the action and now … a diss track.
In response, Prince registered the Web domain name “Princefamsunited.com” and posted a seven-minute funk jam called “PFUnk,” alerting fans to its presence on fan site message boards. The song makes no secret of its target: “The only reason you say my name is to get your fifteen seconds of fame, nobody’s even sure what you do,” Prince sings. “I don’t care what people may say, I ain’t gonna let it ruin my day.” Toward the end, Prince tells his fans, in his famed helium-like “Camille” voice, “I love all y’all, don’t you ever mess with me no more,” before taking out all his anger on his guitar. Prince goes as far as calling one person, likely a member of the PFU, “a big fat punk,” and threatens someone called “Weemolicious” by singing “Look here Weemolicious, you and your boyfriend, lemme tell you somethin’ right now, you run up on me again with words or otherwise, I’mma knock both you punks out.” He also sings that he wants digital music to “disappear.”

How did the fans, and the PFU, take to the diss track? With open arms and, surprisingly, dropped jaws. As one poster on the Housequake.com board said, echoing the general response, “It really is head and shoulders above anything on [Planet Earth] or 3121.” Another poster thought they discovered an unearthed B-side from 1987, if not for the topical lyrics. Even the union that gets the brunt of Prince’s bile, the PFU, celebrated the track they helped inspire.

Still, the question remains: Why did Prince’s team target specific Web sites and ask for photos of everything from Prince-inspired tattoos to album-cover images to be removed? Could it be that the sites penalized were bootlegging and file sharing concerts, or diverting traffic from Prince’s official site, 3121.com? Avera denies both claims, saying there’s no file sharing on the boards, and that all the sites route traffic to 3121.com when possible. The sites in question claim they were singled out because they operate message boards that are sometimes critical of the star. Prince does have a history of unleashing his purple wrath on online boards: He terminated the NPG Music Club’s message board, an official paid service for diehard fans, shortly after the release of 2001’s Musicology. “I signed in one day, everything was fine,” Karen Avera, spokesperson for PFU and Housequake moderator, said. “The next day I went and everything was gone. No warning.” Avera speculates negative reactions to the album on the board — which is similar to some of the fan criticism Prince’s Planet Earth received just a few months ago — was to blame.

The fan sites say they have always cooperated with the Paisley Park lawyers — that is, until now. When fan photos of Prince’s London concert marathon started surfacing on message boards, the lawyers asked that the photos be removed and replaced with shots provided by Prince-hired photographers. The fan sites gladly replaced the pictures. Now, however, the lawyers are demanding those photos be taken down. To date, Housequake.com has not removed the images, and since the site is based in Holland, Avera is unsure of whether the cease-and-desist letters are within their jurisdiction.

When Rolling Stone talked to John Giocobbi, the Managing Director of copyright protection agency Web Sheriff, regarding Prince’s battle with YouTube, Giocobbi said, “Prince has always been a very independently minded artist and kind of bold and pioneering in a way. It goes back largely to the kind of promise he had with Warner Bros., when he lost the right to use his own name and then he became The Artist Formerly Known As. And once he recovered his scars from that battle, he was a lot more savvy as a result of that too. And he’s a lot more kind of protective about his rights.” When asked whether the Web Sheriff is just going after illegal bootlegging of Prince videos, Giocobbi admitted that, “In essence we’re going after everything, which is why it’s kind of pioneering.”

As far as Avera is concerned, those message boards are going nowhere. “Oh, we’re going to keep the message boards,” Avera promises, “because the boards go far beyond just talking about Prince’s music. It’s a connection where a lot of people worldwide have come together to talk and make friendships.” Despite feeling unappreciated, and the threat of a looming lawsuit, Avera swears that she, and the PFU, will remain Prince fans. “With everything that’s going on, we continue to listen to his music. We’ll continue to buy his music, because we appreciate his music.”

Geezuz. Their fact checker much have the day off.

Genesia said:

"In any conflict the first casualty is truth"

"A lie goes around the world before the truth has got its boots on"

Good article, They actually get it. It's ashamed that most of his fans don't. O well that song is funky.

Holy crap, look at the picture!

http://www.rollingstone.c...ets-funky/

Also, P has to be hurting over RS headlining this as a "battle with fans". That's the kind of tagline that has legs.

AWESOME PRINCE!

MAYBE YOU CAN PLAY A NEW YEARS EVE GIG AND LET THE TIME OPEN THEN TELL EVERYONE YOU DON'T HAVE YOUR EQUIPMENT AND BAIL ON US!!!!!

BAWHAWHAWHAWHAHWAWAAAAA

Put it to you like this Prince, if people talking crap about you can get you to make tracks as funky as that, with the Camille voice and everything, then we should all reverse the psychology as much as possible and have little to nothing good to say about you

That’s a nasty track, funky

But RS should take that pic of you and the symbol down, then again they have lawyers also

Stupid Internet.
[Edited 11/9/07 13:45pm]

Well Karen Avera and Housequake have their 15 minutes of fame anyways, so that's great and I'm sure they are so pleased with themselves

It took making him mad to get some REALLY OLD SCHOOL FUNK out of him again. Because I wasted $15.00 on Planet Earth. I listened to it for a couple of days and it never really did anything for me. I'll be glad when all this stuff works it self out. I will remain a fan through it all. I don't think any of us will ever understand what goes on with him because he never really explains to us his reasons. Some sort of explaination would be good. But I guess he really doesn't have to explain his self because he's Prince.

I think chalking all of Prince's fucked-up moves and nutty behavior to merely being a reaction to fans criticizing him is a bit asinine. I just think he's a bit insane and more than a bit of an asshole...but then I've always thought that lol .

PFU has definitely been doing its work...

hesoldnow said:

He doesn't explain himself because then the whole world would see how much he contradicts himself. Some of us "die-hards", figured it out a long time ago, and the rest of us still can't seem to take their rose colored's off when it come to him.....and he knows that.

Where's my book on Photoshop 101 when I need it...

I can't believe this. I don't know about the other sites but I know that Prince.org has always been respectful of the Artist. Now I think he's just being a jerk.

Thank you Rolling Stone for at least having a clue.

I really think Prince is losing his mind. What harm have we done him? We still runb out and buy his perfumes, concert tickets, and albums. I can't dig his negative vibe.

I think this is entirely about criticism. Prince's past proves it. He reads the message boards devoted to him, and when people say negative things about him, his actions, or his music, he gets pissed. Why do you think he force fed us his 90's outtakes on the Crystal Ball set?

Anyway, look at this post from his own site over 10 years ago...
-----

Good luck, Pierre!
We at Love4OneAnother would like 2 wish Pierre Igot all the best in his life and endeavors if he has in fact left Uptown... reading b tween the lines, any1 surely can c that his was a spiritually-driven decision...news sites call themselves objective and then proceed 2 hurt the hearts of human beings... if u haven't got anything nice 2 say, (u know the rest). If Pierre is interested in helping 2 spread the joy of charity, he is more than welcome 2 assist us here at "Love Central," the egoless, time-traveling new power site - L41A! Peace.
[Edited 11/9/07 14:26pm]

lspear76 said:

I agree with you. Prince does not like to be called on his crap, whether it's in the form of a song, or his sometimes unreasonable actions. And when he IS called on it, and the person is correct, he gets pissed and take dramatic actions. I'm willing to bet it is the same way in his friendships and romantic relationships as well.

VelvetJ said:

I have to agree. Whgere our comments were censored on the forums at NPGClub, we have the FREEdom to scorn or adore on these fan sites. Gosh, who can forget all that sugary syrup the staff posted about the Artist.

lspear76 said:

Prince has ALWAYS been heavily criticized on fan websites, big and small...if mere criticism drove his actions he'd never have time to do anything else except react to criticism. Not to mention we can still criticize the little fella all we want even without imagery of Prince or videos or even without posting photos of our Prince tattoos lol ...we'd actually proberly start criticizing him more.

He may not like the criticism of fighting back against his ridiculous lawsuit, but he's not gonna sic a team of lawyers on a website because the members didn't like Planet Earth. Come on now lol...

He should just stop reading the damn boards if he's so sensitive to comments. I've learned not to do it now.

I happen to like Planet Earth, so I didn't bother with the negative threads on the album. I like a lot of you guys here, so I'm now trying to stay out of any Jacko topics where you all tear him down. It took me a while to learn to block out the negativity, but I assume someone like Prince who has better and more exciting things to do than spend hours online every other night shouldn't be taking it to heart as much.

PfUnk may be a great song, however, Out of a zillion songs, there are a handfull, we as fans, could listen 2 or live without, Only because there are so many styles of emotions to choose from....However, I hope Prince goes back into his velvet think tank, without the worries of bad rumors and streety
back-stabbing opinions...so that Prince can write about how he really feels most of the time. In Love with Love, making sexy music for Lover's, and sharing his concerns about the impending unity of the world.

So thanx to all of the inspirers that provoked him, but I as a fan would rather hear different lyrics...

I like Prince happy.

RodeoSchro said:

What kinda photoshopped pic is that? Prince the dictator?

Whenever i read stuff like this, I feel like going underground and riding it out or something.

Does anyone know who “Weemolicious” is?

well he said that he is going to knock some punks out well that not so JW of him now it is.

There are naive fans actually praising the song, not realizing Prince is giving them a backhanded compliment. That's your idol letting you know how he really feels about you.
[Edited 11/9/07 16:30pm]

Knock em' out the box Prince, Knock em' out Prince!

xadnama said:

who is Karen Avera?

VenusBlingBling said:

that pic is too funny

"Avera swears that she, and the PFU, will remain Prince fans."

I reckons we need a different group. PFU my ass...

P-FUUP = Prince Fuck Us Up Please

cuz you know we love it...again and again.... drop a 1999 bomb on our backyards, run over our grandmothers with your flashy BMW, smack our little kids in the face with your big guitar, poke us in the eye with your shiny heel when we're jammin in the front row at your concerts, sue us till you got the shirt of our backs and, once you got us naked, spank us hard Prince cuz oh yea we love it so... it's what we've always dreamed about...

Who's with her? - not me!

Peace out of this crazy gig.

unkemptpueblo said:

<-----BURP, arghhhhh OLD NEWS