4bjb said:

Hilarious, I say think for yourself, your response it to spout more written text.

As per the pirate bay question, basically the guys who run it have proved time and time again that they are not breaking the law in their country, despite the implications that file sharing has, that is not what they are doing. So demanding they stop and using the law as a vehicle is inevitably going to fail. I'm pretty sure if a media giant like EA or Microsoft can't stop them then Prince hasn't got a chance. Silly little man.
[Edited 11/13/07 5:59am]

Has anybody asked the question, how much is this going to cost Prince? Yeah, I know his reputation will probably suffer. I love Metallica, but I still joke over Lars Ulrich and his crybaby attitude over Napster. I laughed over the South Park episode making fun of this (Christian Rock Hard I believe it was called?).

But my question is monetarily. I know, Prince probably has a ton of dough, but hiring lawyers, and this Web Sheriff thing. Not to mention the fact all the court cost for all the sites he's going to have to sue. When I think about it that way, he must really care a lot about image and his music to put out some of his money to protect it in this way. So, on that hand, I say good for Prince. But...on the other hand, I think he is taking it way too far! I like YouTube for the fact I can see Prince interviews and performances I may have missed. Like, just a couple of days ago, I watched the Larry King interview from 1999. I had never seen it before, and it was nice to be able to watch it. Now, with something like this that is absolutely free on cable, downloading or watching a copy of that, is that really infringing on his creative control, or copyright infringment? Wouldn't it be a violation against CNN and not Prince?

It's like when boom boxes with dual cassettes came out and people said that was going to ruin the music industry. In fact, that may be directly responsible for me being a fan of Prince. I made a copy of Purple Rain (oh God, I'm going to hell for admitting that now!). I listened to it over and over. I bought a cassette copy of Purple Rain, and now have a CD copy of it. If it had not been for that illegal copy I made back then, I may never have gotten into Prince like I have.

What about VCR's? Same thing there, that was going to ruin the film industry and how evil of people to record shows they liked. What if some kid today hears "Black Sweat" on MTV and records and plays it over and over and because of that, goes out and buys 3121?

I honestly think it hurts him. Because now, all that stuff is illegal. You hear one song on the radio by him, but now it's illegal to record it. We all know Prince's stuff is not as big on the radio as it once used to be. So I hear one song, a few times, I kinda like it, but I can't download any of the music because now, it's illeagl, and I can't make a copy of it from another CD because that too is now illegal. Am I really going to go out and spend $15 on a CD and bring home something like Planet Earth chancing the whole album is good, only to find out a couple of tracks are okay?

No, the only people buying Prince's music now is the hard core fans such as ourselves. I think we are a strong enough fan base to sustain him, but I think he loses that respect he has gained as someone who's influential because run of the mill music fans look at him as a kook and a cry baby like they did with Lars Ulrich a few years ago. Well...he's done kooky things in the past before, but this just adds to it.

Anyway, just my two cents!

Prince should realize that sites like YouTube work as marketing.
There are some artists that I only knew because someone gave me the link to an YouTube video saying ´check out this guy. What a great musician´.

On the other hand, all these lawsuits only work as the opposite marketing: fans get angry and the non-fans make jokes (like the Metallica x Napster thing)


Prince, instead of worrying about it, please ask Sony BMG why Planet Earth wasn´t released in Brasil yet!! It´s the second time it happens, but TRC was independent. Even NPS was released here.
I had to download because I CANT buy it.
[Edited 11/14/07 5:48am]

this has NOTHING to do with youtube or napster. the pirate bay is neither a streaming video site nor a music community. it's an old-fashioned, no-foolin, illegal-and-proud-of-it warez site that carries everything from software to porn (and, until recently, child porn)

some of you seem to know even less about this than prince does
[Edited 11/14/07 8:06am]

ace1967 said:

if i had a full grasp on how torrents worked ..i sure nuff would b heading over there 2 complete my collection.

and i love that emale..it's so tongue in cheek

bottom line tho, if prince wanted 2 really stop bootlegging, release the material that people want. simple business practice sense, but how could he when he's such a profectionist that he would release something where the band messes up or the lighting crew messes up and he makes his off the cuff comments during the show. oh wait, he wouldn't b able 2 do overdubs as well
[Edited 11/14/07 8:51am]

theghostoftonym said:

Child Porn...maybe this will make some folks on this site "Think". Bring Pirate Bay Down Now!!!!

theghostoftonym said:

k I want some actual fact on this child porn, cause I've surfed PB for yrs and have never come across any type of material of that nature.

theghostoftonym said:

Ahh that well known reliable tome of fact and truth WIKIPEDIA!

I suggest you look into the whole issue of The Pirate Bay more closely

The exact sequence of events were the Swedish authorities, under pressure from the US government, raided TPB and seized not only TPB's machines but others belonging to an ISP and another website not even remotely conencted to TPB

The Swedish government then had the embarassing situation of not being able to charge TPB with anything

The next attempt to close down TPB by the authorities was by putting them on the child pornography filter which effectively meant noone could connect to TPB

There was no evidence of child pornogrpahy on TPB

The child porn filter was then lifted by the Swedish authorities as there was no evidence

It was nothing more than a ruse to try and close them down

Do you honestly thing if their had been any evidence of child pornography that the authorities wouldnt have jumped all over TPB?

Bear in mind that TPB is a huge thorn in the Swedish governments side

For someone so keen to tell people they know less than prince does about TPB you might want to use a more reliable reference source where any idiot can add to the entries, many of which are proven to be incorrect

im well aware the child porn charge was basically a way to get it shut down because they couldn't otherwise, but their attitude towards it remains the same. i.e. they don't really care. their attitude is anarchistic. it's very easy to be anarchistic if you're some nerd running a site from his parents' basement in one of the safest and most developed countries in the world, and the only thing you apply your anarchy to is the practice of getting free shit off the internet.

try a search for "preteen": http://thepiratebay.org/s...00,400,600 . yup, i'm sure the pirate bay took the time to download every one of those torrents and check them all out to see if they were legal. totally. it's a certainty.

What if some kid today hears "Black Sweat" on MTV and records and plays it over and over and because of that, goes out and buys 3121?

I think this is where Prince is going, he's trying to control access, he's smart he knowns he won't stop everything illegal on the net as it's too big but by stopping the likes of Pirate Bay etc.. he can limit the damage and people will still go to 3121.com and pay for the music or buy a newspaper with a "Free" CD or better still go to a concert and buy his music there!

He doesn't want to end with the revenue of a Radiohead CD!

Markland said:

Thanks Markland its nice to see someone whos opinions are actually based on facts around here.

theghostoftonym said:

The clear impression you gave earlier was that The Pirate Bay was trafficking in kiddy porn, that isnt the case

Firstly, TPB do not have any infringing material on its machines, as you no doubt know, they are simply a tracker site

Secondly, if they did download material marked "preteen" and it was what kiddy porn, they would then be committing an offence, which, I suspect, is exactly what the authorities want

Thirdly, TPB isn't some nerd sitting in a basement, its actually a professionally run business with some of the best legal advice available in europe as their constant legal victories and lack of convictions is testament to

I think their glib replies to legal requests are a product of the fact they have been proven to be operating legally and those absolutely ridiculous demands to remove material they don't even host are not worth the screen space they take up

I'd be pretty glib too if I had that much of my time wasted by spurious complaints by timewasters

GustavoRibas said:

I have a few spare copies of Planet Earth from the London concerts - send me your details in an orgnote and I will gladley send one to you if you would like.

Received a response from The Web Sheriff in relation to the e-mail that I sent. Must admit it made me laugh. His reply was as follows:

Web Sheriff
Protecting Your Rights on the Internet
Tel 44-(0)208-323 8013 / Fax 44-(0)208-323 8080
websheriff@websheriff.com www.websheriff.com

Hi Andy,

Many thanks for your mail / ‘suggestion’ ...

.. although you can’t make an omelet

without cracking a few eggs !!

All The Best,

Web Sheriff

ace1967 said:

K now i really want to see these cease and desist documents, cause with such insightful coined phrases like the above they must excel at professionalism.



What did the lil dude follow an ambulance around looking for a lawyer to do his bidding?

theghostoftonym said:

It isn't so much anarchism, because TPB didn't refuse the authorities to patrol their site, in fact they welcomed it. It's more anti-fascism.
They don't want to remove the material to take steadfast stance, that law is on their side.
In someways Its kind of a service, Cause if people are indeed sharing child porn it's easily traceable.
So the issue really isn't the child porn, thats a shroud.
Its just the fact that its a form of p2p sharing,
And untouchable one,
So they'll do anything it to try to knock it down.

ace1967 said:

4bjb said:

Well, Prince is in the right company then. Didn't he start grooming Mayte from the age of 15?

Is it Piratebay.org or .com

SquirrelMeat said:

that's fucked up! do you HATE prince? cause I would NEVER insinuate something like that about ANY one....EVER unless I knew for a fact that someone was actually abusing children.

Shorty said:

Im not the one promoting a story of him courting a 15 year old on his Symbol album, whilst making videos like the Morning Papers to go with it. Sure its a story, but how sick is that?

I didn't say he abused children ( I don't think he does) I'm saying he groomed Mayte until she was of age. Mayte herself said Prince looked after her wonderfully between the ages of 16 and 18.

SquirrelMeat said:

you quoted a post about child porn in refrence to Prince's relationship with Mayte....you DID insinuate he abused children. (mayte)
Where with in the symbol album does it promote courting a 15 year old? Mayte was NOT 15 nor pretending to be in the Morning papers video....she was in fact an adult...much younger than him but an adult non the less.

Shorty said:

My comment was in reference to someone accusing the Pirate bay of being promoters of child porn. They are not. So the direct comparison to Prince is the fact at 1) we are on a prince site, 2) Prince has been self suggested a link with an underage girl in his previous work. I was being sarcastic when I said Prince would be in good company then. Nothing more, nothing less.

However, in reference to the Symbol album, Kirsty Alley clearly states that the "Princess of Cairo is only 15 years old".

The morning papers video is lifted out of the Three chains of gold video where Prince is clearly in love with this Princess. Played by a very young girl he ends up marrying in real life!

"Why is age more than a number, when it comes to love?" How much clearer do you want it?

SquirrelMeat said:

Let's not forget Mayte's, she mother encouraged this relationship from the start. When she became legal he did just what he was suppose to do. It sounds like some jealousy here as always.

Shorty said:

U r so right. Anybody in their right mind could see that she is 18 or older.

Sure Prince is a monster but he's not a deviant..
well i guess he is...
Anyways Mayte was 17 when she first met prince, And she was 18 by the time Love Symbol came out
anybody who takes the dialogue in the love symbol as gospel
needs a class in rational thinking
outz

4bjb said:

She was playing a character that was 15 years old. Thats my point.

EmbattledWarrior said:

No, they met when she was 15 in Germany and they remained in contact, with Prince treating her to trips and gifts until she was 18.

Regardless, we are in danger of going off thread. This isn't about 15 year old Mayte (although it would make an interesting thread in its own right), its about Pirate Bay.

Pirate bay are NOT pedlers of child porn.

SquirrelMeat said:

Silly me, I took that in refrence to the real media and how they will inflate a story to make it a story. As if Kirsty (Venessa B) was suggesting that was going to be the headline if say he didn't give her the real story. See MY point?