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.

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.

Damn, there's more conspiracy theories here than ever !

Firstly, the simple reason that nothing's been said is that as many of you know, I look after the Prince liaison and legal statements for Housequake and I've been snowed under with my day job - in fact I only found out HQ was closed by email from one of the other mods this morning.

As some have noticed, relations with official sources have been very good of late, however mostly because we've been "playing the game" and trying our best to not offend P. An example of this is how we've had a header that doesn't even mention Prince's name nor shows his photo.

A couple of weeks ago, one member put together some excellent lotusflower "inspired" banners that used a symbol that looked a bit like Prince's but with a flower modification. As they didn't infringe copyright, we took the decision to put these live, along with the official banners we were supplied directly by P.

Roughly 24 hours later, we got a very blunt email saying "this must be removed" from one of his team. We tried to discuss this explaining that it's very difficult to have a fan website that doesn't have a picture of Prince or even show his symbol, however P was adamant that we don't "imply official status".

As someone else noticed on this thread, this was quite frankly the straw that broke the camels back and Aaron came to the belief that this really isn't a fun thing to do any more. Please remember that this is just a hobby for Aaron. It costs him money to run (we can't take donations any more as it changes our legal status and this was used by Prince's legal representation to claim we were a commercial organisation - nice huh ?) and take up a great deal of his time. Would you spend time and money on something you didn't enjoy ?

Is HQ over ? I personally don't know but I've spent a great deal of time playing "united nations" to repair relationships between Prince and all the PFU members (I brokered the "ceasefire" between the PFU and Prince) so I'm not about to give up yet.

It Ain't Over !

ps - thanks for the notes of support for HQ. This isn't about Prince.org vs Housequake, this is purely about fans rights to support an artist in a reasonable manner.

...

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

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.

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.

Maybe aaron will get another hobby!!!

As someone else noticed on this thread, this was quite frankly the straw that broke the camels back and Aaron came to the belief that this really isn't a fun thing to do any more. Please remember that this is just a hobby for Aaron. It costs him money to run (we can't take donations any more as it changes our legal status and this was used by Prince's legal representation to claim we were a commercial organisation - nice huh ?) and take up a great deal of his time. Would you spend time and money on something you didn't enjoy ?

Is HQ over ? I personally don't know but I've spent a great deal of time playing "united nations" to repair relationships between Prince and all the PFU members (I brokered the "ceasefire" between the PFU and Prince) so I'm not about to give up yet.

It Ain't Over !

ps - thanks for the notes of support for HQ. This isn't about Prince.org vs Housequake, this is purely about fans rights to support an artist in a reasonable manner.

benni said:

#
I guess P. was rather pissed off by this fanmade banner looking better than anything he paid (that wannabe actor) for. So if Reverend had made a subpar childish-looking shit-banner, everything would have been fine...(and of course this banner then wouldn't have been the HQ header, too)

so don't do GOOD stuff that is inspired by anything that has got to do with P.

...

good riddens aaron.

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.

Gav said:

It does violate his trademark on the symbol logo and legally if he knowingly allows trademark violations to continue, he runs the risk of losing his trademark.

Thanks Gav for the update. I do hope Aaron will reconsider.


To those of you Orgers acting all superior saying HQ/Aaron deserved this, I would say "Karma's a bitch." Don't think the Org is immune. In fact, if HQ stays closed that means more time for Prince to focus on what he dislikes about the Org, right? You think because it doesn't have a "Prince" banner it's safe? Yeah right. I'm sure Prince is not amused by some of the wacky threads allowed to fester in Music & More.

It has to be annoying to put something out there and within 5 minutes there are 1000 new renditions of it. Something similar, but slightly different.

Very well said. this is exactly how I feel. aaron needs to stop doing what the hell he wants and thinking cuz he is aaron/hq he is going to get away with it. Maybe aaron will get another hobby!!! good riddens aaron.

What's going to happen if on Prince's new site there's a forum like ours and people say things that criticise Prince's music or religion or whatever? We have freedom of speech and a right to our own opinions, so is Prince going to ban you from his site if one speaks a bad word about him even if they pay money?This is just terrible for HQ. I loved it over there as well as I do here. What a shame!
[Edited 1/30/09 5:40am]

What's going to happen if on Prince's new site there's a forum like ours and people say things that criticise Prince's music or religion or whatever? We have freedom of speech and a right to our own opinions, so is Prince going to ban you from his site if one speaks a bad word about him even if they pay money?This is just terrible for HQ. I loved it over there as well as I do here. What a shame!
[Edited 1/30/09 5:40am]

Teacher said:

Any rivalry between the two sites is only fuelled by childish nonsense like that post. If it exists, it's certainly not by "the vast majority", and isn't exclusive to Housequake.

seems like prince and his legal team struck again.

how long before the org has to shut down too?

npggirl77 said:

Prince doesn't own exclusive image rights to anything containing a pyramid, galaxy or waterfall just because that's his new concept.
[Edited 1/30/09 6:06am]

IstenSzek said:

look guys how many times do you do a joke until its not funny...he's human if people kept photoshop my image time after time i'd get pis*ed..and i'm not even 50!...LOOK he gave hq rules they broke them game over...more than once...no ones stabbing anyone in the back or taking sides the rules are their because he's Prince and thats what why we are all here.....right...

4bjb said:

What's the real reason behind your attitude? Are you that devoted to Prince that you have to jump on Aaron's back to prove your loyalty?

alandail said:

Exactly!

Posted a comment on here earlier that Prince doesn`t deserve fans or indeed spending money on him.
His attacks on Controversy, Uptown and all the other fanzines and fansites over the years has been totally out of order.
I can understand if somebody is selling pirates and bootlegs then that should be stopped. I`m not a great fan of bootlegs and always prefer the official stuff to be honest.
To discuss and post pictures of your favourite "idol" with the chance of being sued just shows that this so called "genius" can be so petty and such a control freak.
When you stop and think about it, I can understand why this man has not had a UK top 10 hit single since 1994 (save for a reissue of "1999", in 1999).
Prince since 1993 has spent most of the time in between recording and touring attacking the record industry, the media and his fans.
Reading comments on here today have had people including me saying:
1. we`re not buying the new albums
2. we`ll download them instead on p2p sites
3. some of us saying that if we did above , then we deserve our pcs to crash.
4. Housequake v`s Prince.Org

Make your own mind up but I think the release of the forthcoming albums are coming out under a very dark cloud with Prince`s once phenomenal fanbase again further erroded all because of a fan-made picture on a fan made website.