Gav said:

But you must have done somthing....right we are adults here...symbol, logo, etc...stuff you should not use without official sign off...right...
Is this media hype...gav....away of grabing headlines...? smoke...fire?

Yes, I was a member of HQ but I rarely posted there. Shame this came to be.

Look it's not about doing something right or wrong.

It's about Aaron getting fed up to the back teeth with running a fansite approving content that could be argued does not really affect Prince personally in a negative way (although he obviously feels that it does, and he has every right to blah blah blah) and then getting told to remove it or face legal action. Time after time after time.

It's very easy for those of us not running. administering, devoting loads of sparetime to a fansite to be dismissive and we have the luxury of continuing our Prince fan status without any of this baggage.
I have to say here that I will be buying the new albums visiting the official sites, prince.org, HQ if it continues, etc etc. I really love Prince's music and I am pretty keen most of the time to hear all the latest happenings and news.

Now if I was running a website for similar fans and kept getting told to "cease and desist" certain things I don't think I would have that same keen-ness after a time...

EmancipationLover said:

This non-profit association is a well known trick:

One Example: The big big FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) is also a "Verein".

And all the millions they have/make all the time are 100% Tax free...!
Because a "Verein" is a non-profit associationand don't have to pay any kind of taxes (here in Switzerland)...

One would think Prince & his camp have better things to do... I wasn't always pleased with the way things were run on HQ, but I do appreciate how Aaron has put a lot of effort, time and money into the site. I can see why he's lost interest in supporting Prince. So did I, and there are other artists out there who deserve my 77 dollars more and treat their fans with respect.

A real big thanks to everyone at HQ for doing The Work all this time. Do you read this Prince-> ALL THE TIME!
Gav, thanks for informing us and Aaron please don't let it go to your head.
It ain't over!
Art.

Teacher said:

Big deal, who cares. People talked about bootlegs. Prince is a crybaby -- he's the perfect example of "too much money, too much time." Since he can't create great music anymore, he concerns himself with other things that don't matter -- people talking about bootlegs. A fake religion. Same story since '96.

Sdldawn said:[quote]

sarkozyiszeman said:

Very good point there!
[Edited 1/30/09 4:58am]

Christopher said:

Prince just wants the fans money. That's all that matters to him. Don't dare put my picture anywhere! But please, buy my 3 new crappy albums! LOL.

funkteer said:

I agree....don't be so quick to jump to conclusions. afterall, if prince allowed hq to use the lotusflower design that was cool, but now why go making your own creation and then having the adacity to use it as the headliner.

Just before he unveils a new official website and new album(s) he pisses off a chunk of his musics most hardcore fans, well done Prince.

Soulstar77A said:

I'm not going to buy his music either. I'll just get it free any way I can. There are more important things to spend money on these days. Besides, downloading music for free is a victimless crime. Prince should get a job like the rest of us. He wouldn't last an hour.

Teacher said:

u definitely have a point!!!

Teacher said:

i'm not surprised, aaron has gotten away with this sh...much too long.

Justfortheloveofit said:

simple,aaron needs to abide by the rules. you cannot just do as you please. he should have gotten authoriztion first rather than think you can do as you please cuz you're aaron/housequake.

catpark said:

Prince does not need hq/aaron to promote for him. it doesn't take a "rocket scientist" to figure out that ist was the flower symbol banner that was not approved. aaron is at fault.

4bjb said:

Why do people keep talkign about videos and as if some big crime has been committed. There haven't been any videos on HQ for nearly 2 years...And when they were taken down, it was at the same time as videos as well as photos were ordered taken down across the board - here, there, everywhere.

Though possibly part of the same ongoing process, this is not about (UN-downloadable) videos that haven't been there for 2 years. It's about a banner.
[Edited 1/30/09 5:13am]

7salles said:

maybe this time your computer will crash!!!!....stealing music.

4bjb, you really know a lot. Even more than what actually happened.

Anyway, it was great that Aaron kept HQ online so long. I would have given up a lot earlier. Aaron rules. (And Ben does too)

Thanks to all HQ members for participating on our little fansite. We made something nice together. And I'm already starting to miss ya
[Edited 1/30/09 5:15am]
[Edited 1/30/09 5:15am]

Vinniecent said:

the real dickhead looking you right in the mirror....guess who? You.

colin2007 said:

speak for yourself.

For those of you wondering what caused 'P' (I won't use his full name in case he's copyrighted that now) to get offended, it was this Image I created:

[snipped. yeah, no. - anx]

I'm thinking of making a new one with the characters 'F U O+>' in bold across the screen.

Wow I'm one of the biggest Prince supporters on this site but damn why is the brotha so damned petty. They say that genuis and insanity are closely tied sometimes and maybe Prince straddles this line.

Why can't he obsess about giving us all the music past, present, and future instead of obsessing about what a small bunch of fans do on websites dedicated to him? Its just not healthy behavior.

None of us can control the world not even some one as talented as Prince. Why he can't just sit back and let people love him is so tragic. Well maybe without all his issues we would have never gotten all the great music who knows. Its just sad that he wastes so much good will fighting over small things. Control freak indeed.

funkyhead said:

i don't feel sorry for aaron, he knew what he was doing and thought he was going to get away with it as he has in the past.

tricky99 said:

Totally agree, sadly.

EmancipationLover said:

Why take a stab at Londell?

npgone said:

when you decide to do your own thing that is Not playing by the rules. Aaron decided he wanted to do this as as a hobby on his own, he should have been responsible enough to respect Prince and the rules, get approval before you launch into your own thing. Again, I am Not feeling at all sorry for yo boy aaron.

The only reason I would buy any of Prince's new cds would be to have a ritual burning of them now.

But I don't think I'll even do that as I don't want Prince to have my money anymore.

He has consistently abused the trust of his fans and is treating them as nothing other than a market for himself to sell to.

It's not a matter of doing things on his terms, it's just plain selfishness when it gets this far.

Aaron, much respect to you and I hope HQ will survive. Prince can't create a site as good as HQ was.

Another thing... if Prince is so upset about fans use of photoshop, he should be able to understand our dislike of the way he uses photoshop to smooth out his wrinkles in his so called up close and personal book '21 nights'.

Reality check Prince, you're getting old so age does seem to count and nobody likes you anymore, even if you can write good music. We'll download it for free and pirate yo' ass.

From all that I've been reading on here, it sounds like Prince didn't tell Aaron to close Housequake, but simply stated that the banner the fan created must be removed as there was an issue that it might be considered official. It sounds like Prince and his employees were trying to work with Aaron, having even sent the official banners to him, but Aaron made the decision to post unofficial banners with the official banners. Prince has always been very aware of his image and what he allows to be released, and is very protective of that image, and anything related to that image has to be approved by him. He has always been that way, he will always be that way.

So it sounds like ppl are pissed off at Prince because he asked for a banner to be removed because it might be considered by others as being an official banner when it's not, and ppl are wanting to blame Prince for Housequake closing when it's Aaron's choice to close Housequake, not Prince's. I'm confused as to why ppl are angry with Prince? He has 3 albums about to be released, he has a website about to be launched, he wants to make sure that everything is in place before the release and launching of the site, so that all PR is positive and comes from him and his people, including what gets released before hand (official banners), because believe it or not, the press does watch what Prince does and what Prince puts out, and they do watch his fan sites (as p.org and housequake have both been mentioned in articles). Anything unofficial might end up being bad PR, or creating an image about the product he's about drop that goes against the image he wants it to have.

Or at least this is my take on what Gav posted and why Prince didn't want unofficial banners out there.