Prince,

As you well know, at first, I was very discouraged about the news that you might want to take legal action against fans. But after cooling off for a moment, I realize your want for people to be respectful of your image and your music. Too many people on many different sites, not just the fansites, were negative about your Planet Earth release and other aspects of your life. At times, even I have been guilty of hearing too many sides of the story and not your side, and giving an opinion based on rumor instead of facts, and I apologize for that. I even reacted with emotion instead of reason when I heard about the letters that your lawyers sent to the sites. I was wrong in what I said, and I was wrong in jumping to conclusions. All too often, I am reminded of human error because we all make mistakes.

Prince, you have to realize, the reason people react so emotionally when they hear this kind of thing is because we love you and care about you. We love your style, your music, your persona, the whole package. So when we hear that we might not be able to share pictures of you or talk about you, it really upsets us. The only time your true fans react negatively is when they feel like you are hurting them, as was the case with this recent letter. Now, for those who have always talked negative about you, you are right, they don't need to be here, because they are not fans and they need to go to whatever site of whatever artist they like and stop bothering you and I.

But by now, you probably have heard of the New Funk Order, it was a little funk organization with artists from all over the world that started right here out of the prince.org artist's community back in 2003. I pioneered the effort and many others joined on in support of the project, and the common bond that brought us together was the love for your music. That hasn't changed. We all love your music and will continue to do so.

But Prince, please remember that the vast majority of us here do not want to illegally tarnish your name or image. I have liked you since I was in pajamas before kindergarten way back almost as long as I can remember in 1981. I can remember my mom talking about your proposed "Second Coming" tour.

I'm still down for whatever, and I'll be here for you, as will many of us. But give some brothers some warning next time- you scared the hell out of me and many others.

I think this PFU thing might have boosted your popularity and grabbed more media time, that's for sure. And I really dig the PFunk song, by the way. Real funky.

Jason Dodson, D.D.
Marion, Illinois
LVX

And one more thing, Prince....

Remember the Las Vegas concert back in December of 2001....even you encouraged people to "hold your cell phone up" and let people listen to your jams and take pics of the concert. Remember your 2045 lesson when you let the man know about how things should be. Remember The Rainbow Children. I Am One.

JD

Just when you thought it couldn't get more Spinal Tap.

.

hmmmm...this whole time i though PFU meant "prince f*ck you"

maybe there's an underlying messege.

Negative news, bad reviews, and gossip is not against the law. Neither is posting pictures. Planet Earth was a weak album by Prince standards -- as a sophisticated and knowledgeable fan as myself can tell you, you could pull any Prince bootleg off the shelf and listen to it and have a more enjoyable experience -- even that low quality sounding Jewel Box.

IMHO, Prince is just pissed that:

1) Any fansites exist at all
2) He does not have the only site regarding himself
3) People give his music bad reviews (he absolutely hates any criticism, IMHO)
4) People gossip and say negative things about him (see above)
5) People are able to find, download, and discuss his bootlegs
6) All 21 Nights in London is already out there. No need to buy anything official.

There are more important things to spend money on anyway. 99 times out of 100 I'll download for FREE and save my money for other things, like bills. But that's just me -- my God tells me it's okay, so I do it with a clean conscious.

Lets face it -- if God did exist, he'd be listening to Prince's unreleased tracks and live concerts too.
[Edited 11/10/07 3:54am]

lspear76 said:


I agree with everything you said except this part. Downloading illegally takes money directly out of the artists hands. If there is an official download or a CD available, you should be buying it.

When MP3s first became popular, I would borrow friends' CDs and rip them all ... I had one of the biggest collections of anyone I know. Then a crisis of conscience made me delete them all in one sitting. Illegally downloading is wrong, but copying CDs is just as wrong.

langebleu said:

that's funny.

JDOSODSDSEOSOSetctetcetc: Lemme guess your fave song is:

Sycophants & Flowers

langebleu said:

JDODSONandFlashpointe said:

wHAT? If I wanna c a pic of P, I can pull out almost any CD or tour book from my collection...dont need the net....if u like the funk...u will listen...we listened before there was an internet and will 4 ever more.....i aint hurtin from none of this...P is his worst enemy in many cases...if u dont know that by now, u must b a newbie....he has always been and will always be the center of some kind of controversy.

lspear76 said:

All 21 Nights is out there??!!!! What?

Se7en said:

Cause Ispear76 is a Leach if they think Downloading Illegally is okay and this is the reason im not siding with The PFU thier the same want,want and want All for FREE.