ian said:

:LOL:

The problem is that Prince knows that those 14 sheep will pay whatever he asks, so the membership fee will go up to $100,000 per year... he will still make the same amount of money from the club... but... since the price went up, Prince will feel obligated to provide a bit more for the member's money... he will provide 2 extra discs of music, including one live disc and one remix disc for the extra money. The other discs will consist of sub-standard music that he is testing out on the 14 members to see if he feels that there will be a public demand so that he can release it to the general publice, thus destroying any exclusivity of the material.

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[This message was edited Wed Oct 2 3:14:39 PDT 2002 by suomynona]

I seriously doubt P will try to get $ from Matt. Probably just wants to make sure he's barred from putting the music up again (or linking to it).

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[This message was edited Wed Oct 2 3:15:02 PDT 2002 by suomynona]

Mrcoolidge said:

You mean that "Emancipation" I bought at Pic'N Save last year for $9.99 is unofficial???

Oh my God.

Okay, seriously though, while I understand Prince's position, there is a such thing as going way too far. If I were Prince I'd be happy someone was paying attention to me instead of getting write ups in papers referring to me as "The Artist Formerly Known to Have Hit Records" and downloads (while I don't like them) - ya ain't gonna stop it, so you're better off working them in a way to your favor. It's been going on for years with taping records. I don't download stuff simply because it's too much of a hassle with computer equipment, MP3 players and crap and I'm too lazy to figure it all out and wind up just going to the store and buying it anyway.

I remember that there was a fan that posted Prince's appearances on the Tonight Show a few years back. Unfortunately I missed the show and I was happy that I was able to view it on this fan's website as well as see some photos of him that I had never seen before. This fan wasn't profiting, but I was upset to find out his website was targeted and removed. How was any of this material on this website being a detriment to Prince? He wasn't offering bootlegs or anything, he was just some young guy that liked Prince.

Interesting how for many a man's religious beliefs, it never seems to do anything for his character.

LQ

How christian is it for an individual to take someones work without permission and offer it for download?

How christian is it for an individual to receive a warning from the owner and creator of the said work, but then arrogantly ignore it?

I'm sure if he had taken the downloads away after receiving the written warning he would not be experiencing such difficulties now.

If he had genuinely wanted to share the music with the Prince community he could have opted for a file-sharing service such as Kazaa or WinMx. Instead he chose to 'host' them on his site. I've heard that they were hyper-links and that may be so. But nevertheless, the song-titles were clearly displayed on his homepage.

He also 'advertised' the songs avaliable daily on the public forums of this site. There was quite a buzz about them. Commonsense informs you that Prince or his associates are going to find out sooner or later. Worse still, he continued to announce the MP3's on these forums with blatant disregard to the written warning he had received.

Prince is not 'ruining' the individual. He is ruined himself by ignoring the initial warning.

Prince's attitude towards bootleg material is well known.

The Bible does advocate peaceful behaviour, but it also advocates protecting ones-self.

ian said:

I think you serioulsy underestimate the crack addiction that is unreleased Prince music. By definition there will always be more unreleased music than released stuff. Prince certainly doesn't like everything he's ever recorded. There's a ton of stuff he probably just forgotten about/lost interest in. Moreover, it makes no economic sense to release every live performance/aftershow. So there will always be a market for the bootleggers to exploit.


Now, say Prince gives the NPGMC 4 cd's worth of music in a year. People will complain that he couldv'e given us 14. If he gives out 14 people will complain that they didn't get 24. Meanwhile, just by releasing ONE cd per year he already releases more music than 90% of the artists out there.

yeahiediteditsowhat...
[This message was edited Mon Sep 30 8:38:13 PDT 2002 by Universaluv]

Mr7 said:

Very well said.

IceNine said:

---
He would flood the market with to much music if he released a CD every week. I am sure everything he has recorded does not need to released. I sure everything he has every recorded does not need to be put out. Why can't everyone just be patient and wait for this 3 disc set and for the membership year to end in Feb.

Mr7 said:

I'm not condoning the acts of FreeMyHeart, BUT my issue is how Prince is handling it. Maybe I'm naive as an artist because I don't know what it's like to be famous, but I'm pretty in-your-face so I'm not obliged to hiding behind attorneys to do my dirty work when I as a person could confront that person myself and write a letter myself requesting that they remove said material and I'm willing to bet they would have removed the links which is a) far more inexpensive than using an attorney and b) you keep the respect of that person and other fams instead creating the HooHaw that's going on now. Now if they try to auction off my letter for profit - then sic the lawyers on them.

Just my two cents on that.

LQ

ian said:

Ian, I think your signature is crap.

Someone said that Prince should be happy people are still interested in his music: I think he is happy that people are, thats why he has a music club. I hear a lot of people complain about the $100 membership fee, but people are paying much much more for bootlegs of low and at best, average quality sounding music. I know people who buy bootlegs, don't like them and give them away, A waste of money but the same people complain about the club. Everybody wants more music from prince, so much so that they will pay $75 dollars for a reheasal, And out of that 75 dollars how much goes to the orignator of the music.(Zero) you are buying music from a thief, you are supporting and encouraging that thief to continue stealing, If no one bought the bootlegs, the thief wouldn't steal because he would not have a market.
So you who are buying the bootlegs are just as guilty,
You all are just SELFISH:

You are JUNKIES, And if Prince don't give me my Hit, I will steal from my parents, my sister, brother, my job, the old lady on the corner, I will mug people, I will do what ever it takes to get my fix. So please don't diss the drug and crack addicts. You are one too.