Why is there such a large contigency that beleives that Prince is wrong when he has his lawyer protect his rights? Any business that is successful protects its property, tradmarks, copyrights, and images. Ask Disney how agressively they go after someone using Mickey Mouse without authorization. Open a burger stand under a bridge somewhere with some golden arches on it and see if a McDonalds mouthpeice isnt crawling up your ass in a matter of minutes!

Prince can not rely on the record industry to protet his interests any longer. He has every right to inform internet bootleggers, Pepe Willie, and any other parasites to cease the illegal exploitation of his work and images. Without the protection of these revenue generating products, Prince probably would not be in a position to throw the celebration every year or offer the Cds and other items online. Think of the free stuff that we have gotten: the War cassette, the Emanciaption booklet, T shirt with the Crystal Ball set. What other artist does these kinds of things and has the kind of empire that Prince has built? It takes some savvy and courage. Every successful business does.

Prince does have every right to protect himself.

cuz p seems 2 be hidin behind a frickin lawyer all the damn time, that's why. i do believe he should have his rights as an artist...but he doesn't need 2 sic the Paisley Legal Mafioso on somebody over some stoopid little things.

mine!!


....cuz this edit sez so.
[This message was edited Sun Jan 26 10:58:08 PST 2003 by Handclapsfingasnapz]

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Prince is "behind a lawyer" when his rights are being infringed upon. THis obviously happens frequently and Prince is diligent in calling people on it. I admire him more for having the balls to do that. It is a pursuit of what is right and fair. It is part of the message in his music.

I agree completely.

By all means he should protect what is legally his.

But when he sent out a symbol on software and then claimed infringement of trademark when it was used by the people to whom he had sent it - that's plain dumb.

MYNAMEISFACE said:

No one can dispute your points, but he and/or his people do sometimes go too far, to the point where they alienate honest fans.

langebleu said:

No, what is dumb is using it in the wrong way. The legal use of the software was to use it in writing his name; not marketing music or images. IT is not the hard for those that have read a book or finished a college.

nas3110 said:

What is "too far"? The only "fans" who are alienated are those that want to beneift from the illegal use of Prince property. Entreprenuers are running those websites that got the letter from Londell. Bootleggers are upset that some legal action was threatened against them. Real fans join the NPGMC.

If what the Prince legal team does is within the law, there is no "too far". Once again, he is practicing his rights and protecting his interests. When you get a multi million dollar empire that you have built with the work of your entire life and some strangers come along and start to steal parts of it, see how you feel about it.

MYNAMEISFACE said:

I am with you on this. The one deficit is that Prince sometimes wants to keep control of things that are out of his control such as netspace information. He must be going crazy trying to stop everything about him.

MYNAMEISFACE said:

I suggest you finish a book on grammar then, because that sentence makes no sense.

The action taken by Prince regarding use of his symbol did not, in the example I am thinking about, centre on its use to exploit the sale of music or images. It was used to represent Prince Rogers Nelson when he was referred to during the period in his life when he said he was using the symbol. He was counter-sued and, ultimately, the case was settled. The symbol continues to be used to this day in the way it always had been by the users of the software. It was a dumb legal move on his part.
.
[This message was edited Sun Jan 26 13:24:49 PST 2003 by langebleu]

Prince has every right to protect his rights but what about when he infringes on the rights of others? Has he ever done this?

rdhull said:

exactly.

You are correct except for calling Pepe a parasite for releasing Prince's material. Prince signed a contract which allows him to do so. It doesn't matter if it was a long time ago because work for hire contracts (even if there was no money changing hands) don't have an expiration date.

Why should Prince be able to get out of his contracts? Does he have this right?

I agree... Prince is absolutely correct to protect his copyright voraciously... ultimately it is all he has to show for his years of his work and he should defend with all means available.

I agree with you.

nas3110 said:

What "Nobody"??? Every point can be disputed, because it is all bullcrap.

MYNAMEISFACE said:

"contingency"?

You can sue other businesses and you can sue your own customers. There is a huge difference. Prince targets many fans with his agresive attitude and lawsuits, either directly or indirectly. That is follish. But you obviously don't see that.


"ANY business"? Bullcrap! There are many businesses that are succesfull without protecting their rights the way Prince and his multinational media businesspartners do.
You don't know shit about that.


How great is that exactly? Ask Disney too how they constantly manage to get Congress to extend the copyright term for Mickey Mouse, from 28 years to 120 years. Ask Disney about the way they rob their creators off any possible right they own. Keep on comparing Prince to a mulitnational monopolist like that. Perhabs you are right. But you are certainly foolish!


Yeah and also compare Prince and his music to McDonalds and their fucked up meat.


He can, he has a deal with Universal and warner still has many rights and interests in about 20 years worth of Prince created music. Oh you didn't think about that?


Sure, information is what internet is all about.


What do YOU know about that? You don't have any insight in this matter.


First off, Prince doesn't like you talking about his music in terms off "products". Bad move.
Second, Prince charges his fans hudreds of dollars for a couple of cd's and a hundred more for a concert. Don't be saying he isn't making any money, that's foolish.


A free cassette for SOME that came with a 50-70$ Crystall Ball that WASN'T DELIVERED. Get the facts straight. Later they SOLD the war cassette as well. They probably still do. That is how many "free" music Prince releases.

And a free Emancipation booklet? What are you talking about?

Lastly, there are many other artists that do the same, but your music world is only limited to prince, so what do you know? And it is not hard to imagine that they do that much better, considering the years of horrid customer service Prince has showed. Other artists don't charge the ludicrous amounts of money prince does. Prince hasn't build an empire. You are hallucinating. Prince is going down rapidly if he doesnt change something about his busniess practices soon. But YOU and your HORRIFIC asskissing and ignoranty post aren't gonna help one bit.

rdhull said:

Yes, and in my opinion he just did this last year. he infringed upon the rights of his harcore fans who decided to support him.

ian said:

He has many means. Law suits are the last means you should use. Lawsuits against fans are foolish.

Abrazo said:

As a member of the club ,I dont feel my rights have been infringed upon.Year 2 was frustrating in some ways,mainly the lack of communication and the long periods with little or no info concerning exactly what we were to recieve.Now that Year 2 seems to be complete,I am satisfied with what we did recieve , and Im looking forward to Year 3.

I agree with Prince and his lawyers and Pepe is Annoying and boring to keep trying to Push 94 East and saying after so many years he Discovered Prince. Please what Utter nonsense. Prince was and IS a Big STAR!! Pepe needs to get over this crap. Prince is Probably Bored to Tears also with this and has decided to Finally get Pepe off his Back.

MYNAMEISFACE said:

What "benefit"?! People want to ENJOY his music, NOT benefity from it! With people like you it's all about the money!

"Entrepreneurs"??? WTF???
You don't have a single clue. Prince sued many NON commercial operating FAN sites, and almost no professional bootlegger!


Whoa! What a turn! The NPGMC makes ver LITTLE avalaible compared to the bootlegggers. If Prince is so mad he should the same and the fans will get the music from him. But Prince doesnt do that. NO! That would be way too smart. Instead... He sues them, like YOU support! There you go with your 100$!



First, the law prince so vigurously applies is made and heavily supprted by "artist enslaving" companies such as Disney and Warner. The same companies he has such a deep aversion against. And there is no contradiction in prince???

Second, much of what they all do is NOT within the law.



No! He is not protecting his interests! He is chasing people that have supported him for many years away from him and YOU are defending him for doing just that!

That's, once again ..., FOOLISH and IGNORANT.



Oh stop crying for a multim millionair! Nobody is stealing anything! Stop acting like you know what it is all about in legal terms, because you do not.

MrTation said:

Well, how you FEEL is entirely personal and therefore subjective. But your feeling is not shared by everyone.

Abrazo said:

It depends. Sometimes if you get some snotty jerk refusing to take bootleg material off his website, a nice and legal "cease and desist" letter will do the job nicely. I doubt Prince really wants to go to court in any of these cases... and the cases where Prince has brought a fan or a fan organisation to court have been few and far between.

That said, he has made some poor decisions in that regard in the past and given guys like Uptown a hard time, and some great fansites were taken down in the great "Prince / Londell scourge".

He's right to defend his copyright etc. He's even right to get legal when the softly-softly approach is not having any effect. But yes, he has made some poor choices with regard to fan sites etc, but I can see his reasons for doing it. I'd say it comes down to a combination of Prince's control-freak instinct and some bad advice from lawyers who have his ear.

Abrazo said:

Nor are your OPINIONS.

Well,I'll never Understand why the Prince Family or Controversy was stopped. They both were Very Good.

MrTation said:

I know that. That's okay.

ian said:

There is more you can do than writing a "cease and desist letter". There is more illegal material out there, including much that is sold than just this one fan, you are referring to here, who offers some links.



that's what I mean. they did a lot of damage to themselves with that.


That depends on your defintion of "right". A broad defintion would include consideration for the consequences of your actions. Obviously Prince doesn't apply that definition.

As far as the Pepe Willie thing is concerned...


The reason Prince called Pepe regarding the use of his name to promote the 94 East releases rather than send a cease and desist like with the websites is because Prince knows he has no case. Pepe is completely free to use Prince's name without obtaining some licence and without paying some fee.

Prince obviously thought he could make a personal call and appeal to Pepe's sense of "civility" and convince him to yield to Prince's wishes. When that didn't work, he threatned legal action...which didn't work either.

Ethically, I don't really see much of anything wrong with what Prince did...or tried to do. He made an attempt to put a hault to a project he didn't feel comfortable endorsing; including his name on a "product" (for lack of better) is a form of endorsement. There is no legal way to stop Pepe, but if I were Pepe and wanted to maintain "social harmony" with Prince (who could possibly return the favor in some way down the line), I would have simply said, "Well, Prince, I certainly am free to use it, but I understand your point of view. Is there some way we could work it out so that we both benefit equally?" and go from there.

Pepe didn't do that, and he didn't have to, but it would have been a nicer way to settle the dispute. After all, Prince's stock may have gone down, but he has a hell of a lot more clout than Pepe, so having a guy like Prince in your corner ain't such a bad thing if your Pepe Willie.

I wonder how many of these phone calls Prince made to Warner's when the released The Very Best of Prince. I seem to recall that they had a contract with Prince way back when just like Pepe did.

As far as sicking lawyers on fans is concerned...

Let me relay some advice my father gave me when I was 22:

"Sometimes the best idea is also the most impractical one."



Ya dig?...I knew that you could...

-SWANGshutsupfornow

Abrazo said:

& this is Prince.Org! . . .. . . where opinions r like assholes:
everyone's got one & have RIGHTS 2 one.