Thanks to the shutdown of Megaupload & the mass exodus of similar online lockers, has chosen to close down.

Even for a 30-year fan such as myself, provided me the opportunity to hear some of the rare vinyl only mixes and sides, that are no longer in print and otherwise unavailable, that I may have missed back in the day.

For newer fans, finding older fans that have collected the out of print material, and, who don't mind sharing it, is essential to their appreciation of the classic Prince era. Since Prince and WB don't seem to be interested in making the material available, sources such as can be invaluable.

Unfortunately, the current climate has taken all the Fun out of and it is no longer worth it for a certain DJ to continue sharing the wax. This is unfortunate. Thanks should go to for all the excellent work and care that went in to sharing lost pieces of history.

In my opininion, when rights holders fail to keep released material in print, they should lose the rights and the material should become public domain. Once music has been officially released, it is "out there" and part of the culture. There should be amendments in copyright law that protect the material from fading from existence and that protect those that work to preserve and distribute it to those that missed out when it was still commercially available. We should call it The Use It Or Lose It Amendment.

This goes for music, movies, tv shows... anything that is copyrighted but not commercially available. The fans, archivistists & cultural historians who are willing to preserve and share out of print media should be protected and thanked for taking on such projects. They should not be considered pirates, thieves or criminals for their efforts.

I'll miss , and hope that things will improve and they will return. Hopefully, if anyone jumps in to fill the void, they will employ the same high quality standards was known for...

RIP ! You will be missed

[Edited 1/31/12 20:26pm]

mediafire seems to be sticking around, and its 10x better than megaupload anyway

SLSK

DC++

You're welcome.

Cerebus said:

SLSK

DC++

You're welcome.

It's 2012, not 2002.

NouveauDance said:

Cerebus said:

SLSK

DC++

You're welcome.

It's 2012, not 2002.

Meaning what? Meaning all the places people got stuff are disappearing? Everything is out there, stress free. Direct downloads will continue to disappear as they are the most clear infraction of copyrights. So jump off your sarcasm bs, a'ight.

Lazy ass people thinkin' everything on Earth should be free for them at a click of a button.

Cerebus said:

Lazy ass people thinkin' everything on Earth should be free for them at a click of a button.

Sorry, I don't follow this back and forth between you.

I will say, however, that my point is specifically about material which in not available to purchase. I am not arguing it should be free, I am arguing it should be available. If it is not available, and if those that have it want to share it, then, they should be able to.

This is not a difficult point to argue or to argue against. The point is availability, not price.

I Checked in there regularly, It had sme great stuff

Sad to see it go, Thanks for the memories

Cerebus said:

NouveauDance said:

It's 2012, not 2002.

Meaning what?

Meaning exactly what I said.

As for the one click bs sarcasm of your own, I'm actually against this type of file sharing in general, other than for OOP stuff like the OP is referring to. The fact that just typing an album or film's title into Google will often give direct links to download it, well - it was only a matter of time before one of the big filehosts would be taken down as a lesson to the rest.

Back on topic: I agree with OP that it's down to fans and nerds like us to archive and share OOP stuff because the record companies, big business etc are generally not interested in niche products - they want to see a handful of things to EVERYONE, not EVERYTHING to handful of people - it makes business sense in a way it's easier, but it also leads to the shit shower state of the entertainment industry today.

There are niche record labels who reissue smaller/niche stuff, and I support them with my cash.

NouveauDance said:

Back on topic: I agree with OP that it's down to fans and nerds like us to archive and share OOP stuff because the record companies, big business etc are generally not interested in niche products - they want to see a handful of things to EVERYONE, not EVERYTHING to handful of people - it makes business sense in a way it's easier, but it also leads to the shit shower state of the entertainment industry today.

There are niche record labels who reissue smaller/niche stuff, and I support them with my cash.

Well said!

NouveauDance said:

Cerebus said:

Meaning what?

Meaning exactly what I said.

As for the one click bs sarcasm of your own, I'm actually against this type of file sharing in general, other than for OOP stuff like the OP is referring to. The fact that just typing an album or film's title into Google will often give direct links to download it, well - it was only a matter of time before one of the big filehosts would be taken down as a lesson to the rest.

Back on topic: I agree with OP that it's down to fans and nerds like us to archive and share OOP stuff because the record companies, big business etc are generally not interested in niche products - they want to see a handful of things to EVERYONE, not EVERYTHING to handful of people - it makes business sense in a way it's easier, but it also leads to the shit shower state of the entertainment industry today.

There are niche record labels who reissue smaller/niche stuff, and I support them with my cash.

You still didn't explain what you meant. It's still nothing but a flippant bs comment. And you removed my very clear explanation of why you're wrong. I don't actually expect anything more from you, though.

My comment, on the other hand, was fact. Lazy ass people DO think everything should be available with one click. It hasn't been that way until just the last few years, so give that 2002 nonsense a rest.

Back on topic, I explained how fans and nerds can and do share everything. If you choose to dismiss it because it's too much effort, that's your problem. It still addresses the OP comment.

djThunderfunk said:

Cerebus said:

Lazy ass people thinkin' everything on Earth should be free for them at a click of a button.

Sorry, I don't follow this back and forth between you.

I will say, however, that my point is specifically about material which in not available to purchase. I am not arguing it should be free, I am arguing it should be available. If it is not available, and if those that have it want to share it, then, they should be able to.

This is not a difficult point to argue or to argue against. The point is availability, not price.

You should have stopped after your first post, because this is some circular no sense making stuff right here.

If you're downloading something, whether it's in print or out of print, via a third party media hosting server, it's free. If it's available for purchase and you're paying for it, it's not going to be from one of those sites. Right? Am I missing something.

Cerebus said:

djThunderfunk said:

Sorry, I don't follow this back and forth between you.

I will say, however, that my point is specifically about material which in not available to purchase. I am not arguing it should be free, I am arguing it should be available. If it is not available, and if those that have it want to share it, then, they should be able to.

This is not a difficult point to argue or to argue against. The point is availability, not price.

You should have stopped after your first post, because this is some circular no sense making stuff right here.

If you're downloading something, whether it's in print or out of print, via a third party media hosting server, it's free. If it's available for purchase and you're paying for it, it's not going to be from one of those sites. Right? Am I missing something.

Let me preface with this, I bought most of those original 12", 7", cassette singles & CD singles. They're sitting on the shelf behind me. I'm not trying to get anything for free.

I'm saying new fans should be able to hear that stuff. I'm saying that it SHOULD be available for them to purchase from the artists and labels that hold the rights. I'm saying that if the artists and labels can't be bothered to make the material available they should lose their copyrights to public domain. And then, yes, that would and should leave the playing field open for the collector's & archivists & cultural historians to FREELY share with those that are interested.

Notice this idea is ALL predicated on copyrights holders themselves choosing to not use their right to commercialize their product. This is about material not available to purchase.

If fans can digitize it, upload it and offer it for free, then surely, labels & artists can digitize it, upload it, and sell it! Problem solved...

It is available and will always be.

FWV had already ripped most (if not anything) of the Prince-related stuff, and people will keep sharing the rips. You'll still find the FWV series shared somewhere online in 50 years.

Whether it's good or bad, filesharing is here to stay and they can't do a damn thing about it, so they'd rather accept it and take money on internet connections to pay for the damages, just like they did on the price of blank cassettes and video tapes and blank CD's and DVD's.

It is available and will always be.

FWV had already ripped most (if not anything) of the Prince-related stuff, and people will keep sharing the rips. You'll still find the FWV series shared somewhere online in 50 years.

Whether it's good or bad, filesharing is here to stay and they can't do a damn thing about it, so they'd rather accept it and take money on internet connections to pay for the damages, just like they did on the price of blank cassettes and video tapes and blank CD's and DVD's.

databank said:

Whether it's good or bad, filesharing is here to stay and they can't do a damn thing about it, so they'd rather accept it and take money on internet connections to pay for the damages, just like they did on the price of blank cassettes and video tapes and blank CD's and DVD's.

I wish that were true, but SOPA, PIPA & ACTA suggest it is not.

Record companies just need to get a f-cking clue. What are they waiting for? Put their whole back catalogues available to buy online, in lossless - NOW.

Even though SOPA/PIPA has some flaws in the way it is written, I FULLY support it.

Other supporters:

American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA)
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
Directors Guild of America (DGA)
Graphic Artists Guild
Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA)
Screen Actors Guild (SAG)
National Songwriters Association

Giovanni777 said:

Even though SOPA/PIPA has some flaws in the way it is written, I FULLY support it.

Other supporters:

American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA)
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
Directors Guild of America (DGA)
Graphic Artists Guild
Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA)
Screen Actors Guild (SAG)
National Songwriters Association

Yeah, I'd say Guilty Until Proven Innocent is a flaw all right. An unsupportable one at that.

If they took down Megaupload without SOPA, then why is it even necessary?

Giovanni777 said:

Even though SOPA/PIPA has some flaws in the way it is written, I FULLY support it.

Other supporters:

American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA)
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
Directors Guild of America (DGA)
Graphic Artists Guild
Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA)
Screen Actors Guild (SAG)
National Songwriters Association

How can one support a law that allows destruction on any website for the content it LINKS to (please correct me if I misunderstood the law). Someone posts a link to something as a comment on my blog and my blog is closed, if not the whole Blogger website and its thousands of blogs, and it's cool?

And anyway, as said earlier, why is it needed in the first place if they can take down MU and if Prince can take down the Org just because we post links to Youtube videos on it?

U think artists and media companies should get money for they work? So do I! Take the cash where u can take it (i.e. tax all the internet connexions and redistribute) and leave the internet alone.

UPDATE: the Fun isn't over after all... Yay!

djThunderfunk said:

UPDATE: the Fun isn't over after all... Yay!

Runs to look

Not trying to bump my own thread, but, I came across an article about "piracy" preserving software that would otherwise be lost to history and how it is a good thing. It's an excellent article and the points used to prove the case parallel the situation with out of print music, as well as movies and TV shows. Anyway, check it out:

Why History Needs Software Piracy

How copy protection and app stores could deny future generations their cultural legacy

http://technologizer.com/2012/01/23/why-history-needs-software-piracy/