remember when he was bashing the record lables long before everyone else jumped in on the fun!

could this be the same kind of situation that the 'fans' are not hip to?

could every other artist in the near future be requesting the same?

will other artist be thanking him later?

does he know something we dont know about the future of the internet?

good point. this intellectual property rights thing is getting me mad. it could be possible: if you know about the row between Cricket Australia and Reuters, AP and AFP, in the first Test between Australia and Sri Lanka, it might very well be the future. but i don't know....maximising revenue streams is fine, but to what extent? and if the media starts paying for covering news, if prince.org starts paying for posting prince news, will that news have any credibility? News Advertisements will take the place of newspapers. It happens on TV already to a large extent.

UNplugged said:

Good point, The Internet still contains plenty of uncharted territory.... rights wise It's The Wild West of old cyber space stylee

Plently of people are still busy staking their claims and trying to install 'Law & Order'

The current US Writers strike is primarily over retaining the rights to their work so that they can claim compensation (if their work is featured on the internet & other digital formats mobile etc)

No Prince is talking out of his arse.

You can't claim copyright infringement of pictures/items you don't own, and Prince sure as hell doesn't own half of what he is claiming.

No other artist will follow because they will listen to sound legal advice.

but could it be like a negiotation?

you always start with everything you want/expect and then settle for a little less.

maybe he has to go to these extremes to get people to take the situation seriously.

I dont think Prince personally doesnt want you to be able to put up a pic of your tatto or custom L.plates. but if he threatens to take everything away and then leaves you with a few exceptions wouldnt it make you feel....ok?
[Edited 11/8/07 6:59am]

Prince/ is a brand.
[Edited 11/8/07 7:01am]

UNplugged said:

You bet. They are scaremongering. But that's a damn shitty approach to take with a site like the org which has gone out of its way to act in the appropriate manner at all times.

When he does that, he gets what he deserves. Look at all the bad press worldwide at the moment. PFU didn't cause that, Prince and his chosen employees did.

SquirrelMeat said:

i disagree. if PFU was not putting out press releases no one would be paying this close attention.

SquirrelMeat said:

whats that old saying? any press is good press!

naa - just about religion. be nice 2 each other etc etc.

but his actions have had an effect bcuz it's left bad taste - no 1 talking about the music, no feel good vibes

no fans,no forum. mission accomplished.
he probably had this foresight.
& all the time knows that his music will remain of interest.

manipulative TWAT.

lottielooloo1968 said:

this isnt about the music @ all.

this is about the business.

UNplugged said:

Most other artist are happy to have alternate fansites that provide them with free advertising me thinks.

UNplugged said:

lottielooloo1968 said:

well how is it about the music?

UNplugged said:

But the press release didn't come first, the cease and desist did. All PFU did was highlight what has happened. For non profit organisations, mass support is their best defence.

Prince has asked for financial compensation. They don't have the cash. What would you do? I would recuit support from the masses to highlight back to Prince that what he is doing in unjust. Its the best and only weapon when you have limited or no funds.

The fact that the world media chose to pick up on it shows they believe it to be newsworthy, and by the content of the articles, totally wrong.

Simply, Prince and NPG had the choice to approach and simply request the take down items they feel infringe their copyright. They didn't. They chose to go legal and request the take down of loads of stuff, including stuff they clearly don't own, and ask for compensation in the process!

Prince reaps what he sows.

I'm sure there are many artists that secretly wish something could be done, but they know the dangers of acting on this if it will hurt their fans in some way. And if they are fighting this battle, they're not doing it publicly because they know that's it's hard to spin it so that it doesn't look bad.

Then you have the others like Oprah who say "Fine...we'll set up a YouTube page and have free advertising". That page, alone, may develop into a community of its own. This will only bring more people to the show. Even the major networks are allowing you to watch entire episodes of shows online. They do this because people are watching and because they know there are other lucrative ways to direct this traffic.

There's good and bad that comes with this change. Too bad Prince doesn't seem to see all the good.

SquirrelMeat said:

my point exactly. he didnt himself create the press paying attention.

the fans did.

UNplugged said:

my point is that he's created chaos in the forum, knowing the effect it would have bcuz nobody is feeling the music right now.
therefore people pissed & no forum...

i don't think he's on2 anything at all. just wanted 2 cause disruptionn.

lottielooloo1968 said:

so your saying he was just bored and decieded to piss off his fans?

i think your underestimating him.

No there will be negotiation. again i ask u guys to catch on the Cricket Australia-agencies dispute. there is a media boycott on RIGHT NOW for the duration of the aus-sri lanka cricket test and there are many prince parallels:
CA says it owns the rights to all names of sports stars written in newspapers and all images published, so the agencies better pay up if they want to cover the game. since ap, afp, reuters or getty make money out of selling those images, CA is screaming copyright infringement. if there is a big sports event on, or a even press conference by a president, does the media pay to cover those events? No, and they should not. But CA is now asking money from reporters (I'm one myself) and photgraphers and their paymasters for the RIGHT to COVER a sports event. Although this raises bigger debates about the credibility of a news item which you know has been paid for, it is something revolutionary because in this case at least, you can't stop CA and you can't stop Prince. But can u imagine a world were there are no news items about a particular sport and no images of a game in newspapers and on tv? AFP, AP and Reuters have said they won't pay to cover news and I support that. But there will be negotiation.
Thing is, this intellectual property rights claim can be validated for an established brand like the Australian cricket team or Prince. Not for new, unknown brands. Frankly, I don't like where this is all heading.

UNplugged said:

like i initially said, i think it's got everything 2 do with religion.
perhaps the power & influence of that has been grossly underestimated.

lottielooloo1968 said:

yeah. dont underestimate religion.

you can bomb the shit out of people and still be religious.
[Edited 11/8/07 7:38am]

JOYJOY said:

why is this reminding me of Billy Sparks? lol

Funkyalien said:

Good point

UNplugged said:

well exactly! very destructive..

Is Prince ON something??

Probably.

I think that in the end everyone will be happy.I believe that he is setting up something where if you want pics and music you will have to go directly through his sight.It's no different than any professional sports team. You have to have there permission to use their likeness or to broadcast.He's doing the same thing. I quite frankly don't understand why most people are in such a huff.Why does it bother you so much that he doesn't want you to use his likeness without his permission? We have gotton away with a whole lot over the years, lets just be happy for that.Again I believe that in the end he will have a system that will make us a happy. Except for the ones that always have something negative to say.

Of course he's on to something. Paul McCartney is just about to release a load of music videos (3 xDVDs worth) that until now have been in his vaults (many were broadcast at time of release and others weren't). The rights in these belong to his company but having licensed them to Warner/Rhino for release you can expect takedown notices to YouTube from Warner/Rhino.

If and when this happens, it'll be seen by some as Macca doing it under the auspice of his licensee and therefore avoiding the heat that Prince has occurs by doing it more directly. I know which way is the cleverest and which is way is theoretically more honest.

The major difference is that none of Macca's unofficial fan sites are covered in hate nor, conceivably would those that DO hate him (if there is any hate among his fans) rise up spilling 'freedom of speech' crap because they were told it's no longer OK to post up pix and videos.

The PFU may win attention and plaudits from all the Prince haters in the media for now but it doesn't and won't stop every other artist's fan groupings from viewing the goings on on these three sites as INSANE.

Prince Fcukwits Unlimited

excessex said:

What, and Prince can't release music, photos, and videos as long as 3 fan sites remain in operation? Give me a break.

Bull said:

Yeah...I think the goal is to try and shut down or limit all of the unofficial sites so he can re-open a new official one with all the pics and music...he wants the fans at the official site....