Certain people must not be sleeping at night anymore

While I'm not fond of Eye Records - not because they release bootlegs but because of how they do it with a cash cow policy at the expense of both fans and traders, I can't rejoice at the notion that someone's life may be about to be ruined, which is the unavoidable consequence of facing a multi-million dollars lawsuit when you're not yourself a multimillionaire, and those people aren't. However the law is the law, and the Estate is doing what they must to protect their property. I just hope no one's life will be destroyed in the process. Prince would traditionally withdrow his charges when bootleggers would back off and cease activities. Hopefully the estate will do the same.

In the 90's-00's there was a truckload of Elvis Presley bootlegs featuring soundboards, outtakes, you name it. His record company started a ''collectors label'' in 1999. One of the reasons was to stop the releases of bootlegs. And it worked. Every now and then still Elvis bootlegs are coming out. Mostly with audience recorded concerts or re-releases from old bootlegs. The label is now going 19 years and still going strong. By now 173 titles has been released featuring books, concerts and outtakes. With so many material of Prince in the vaults, its a great opportunity to do the same.

LoneCrone said:

This lawsuit is a Blast From The Past. It's almost like he's still with us!

databank said:

Certain people must not be sleeping at night anymore

While I'm not fond of Eye Records - not because they release bootlegs but because of how they do it with a cash cow policy at the expense of both fans and traders, I can't rejoice at the notion that someone's life may be about to be ruined, which is the unavoidable consequence of facing a multi-million dollars lawsuit when you're not yourself a multimillionaire, and those people aren't. However the law is the law, and the Estate is doing what they must to protect their property. I just hope no one's life will be destroyed in the process. Prince would traditionally withdrow his charges when bootleggers would back off and cease activities. Hopefully the estate will do the same.

LoneCrone said:

SuperFurryAnimal said:

I like the part that the will bring lawsuit on anyone. I wore an NPG old school hockey Jersey to a Paisley Park party once and Donna's husband came over and started a conversation "where did you buy that jersey man? You know we don't look kindly on bootlegger merch.". I kindly explained it was sold directly from 1800NEWFUNK back when they actually made cool merch and it is still heavily sought after. They just don't get it. One release a year LOL. This will fire up people to secretly drop all they got especially if they don't release music. Though it is the right of them to go after people from personal experience they are kind of clueless.

I'm sure he was just acting on orders (lackey), but what a douche.

Although he was officially the President of NPG Records from 2013.

SuperFurryAnimal said:

LoneCrone said:

I'm sure he was just acting on orders (lackey), but what a douche.

Actually after talking awhile I really got along well. I like him but also I went on a bit about how merch from Paisley was not as good as it once was. I met the guy as well that took the order from Paisley to make the jerseys. He was super cool. I mentioned same to him. I gave him a piece of mind that the shirts were just not as cool. Truth is Donna's husband probably was not even born when the NPG jerseys were manufactured. As the trademark guy working for Prince though I was little surprised he never seen one and we talked at length about how I thought newer merch was just not cool. I still do believe there is disconnect with supply and demand. Majority of books released in like them done away from Paisley, for example. Why can't the estate get together a good book, to be fair I did like the ones they released though the celebration one was kind of shotty. I guess the answer is to allow others to do the work then eventually go after them. Ridiculous. I'm just older, socks, water bottle, leather bracelets. They won't get my money. Higher end shirts with detail, books, music that is packaged properly they will take my money.

Josh was born circa 1990, so he was born, but he was in primary school in the 1-800 New Funk days. Ain't we old?

SuperFurryAnimal said:

leecaldon said:

LoneCrone said:

I'm sure he was just acting on orders (lackey), but what a douche.

Although he was officially the President of NPG Records from 2013.

I was not even aware of that until later which was funny. I bought that jersey at the Paisley garage sale and actually, I bought thousand worth of cds, vinyl, jerseys, artwork etc. Another guy bought up most of the jerseys and I regret not having more capital. Anyway, funny story after I bought everything someone comes up "hey someone wants to meet YOU!" (my thought was Who me!) I go chat with this lady who looks beautiful, later find out it is Prince's ex from grade school. She had a curly hair and a clipboard and asks "you bought a lot of merch what do you plan to do with it!" and I explained ebay it to fund going to shows. Come to think back, $7 purchase and I got to meet the President (the President of NPG Records).

Laws are aribtrary. If you don't like bootlegs put the damn shit out? Zappa and Dylan were both smart about this.

SuperFurryAnimal said:

I like the part that the will bring lawsuit on anyone. I wore an NPG old school hockey Jersey to a Paisley Park party once and Donna's husband came over and started a conversation "where did you buy that jersey man? You know we don't look kindly on bootlegger merch.".

.

So some dweeb who only got in with the Prince crowd FIVE FUCKING YEARS AGO because HIS WIFE got a job with them is now telling off fans?

.

Good lord, what kind of imbeciles are running the show there?

Vannormal said:

Sueing bootleggers is just plain stupid. If Prince was still alive, he would've done it himself much more, and if he realy wanted to spend more time on that with good legal support.

.

There is exactly ONE court case which involved a Prince release: a guy who'd released TBA. Of course it collapsed because during the case it came out that Warners couldn't produce evidence that they had the legal right to act on behalf of Prince, because apparently Prince had failed to produce the necessary documents. The case is discussed in a book about bootlegs.

TrevorAyer said:

The estate clearly fucked up the vault and is relegated to sueing EYE to get access to more recordings ... considering the poor sourced material already released they seem to be grasping at straws for material when a simple high quality vault sourced set would put an end to interest in anything eye releases ... the estate is run by crackheads who will never release anything good and will only make a peep when they get mad at those putting out better material than they can be bothered to ... the estate isn’t trying to preserve prince legacy .. they are trying to destroy it cuz they are all hateful

I think that's quite a leap to believe that.

TrevorAyer said:

the estate isn’t trying to preserve prince legacy .. they are trying to destroy it cuz they are all hateful

Does your country have access to adequate mental health resources?

tmcjb said:

TrevorAyer said:

the estate isn’t trying to preserve prince legacy .. they are trying to destroy it cuz they are all hateful

Does your country have access to adequate mental health resources?

leecaldon said:

I understand why the estate is suing and they certainly have the right to but.....I just think that it's too late (and kinda pointless) to go after the bootleggers.Prince bootlegs have been circulating since the 80s! So much stuff is already out there and make no mistake,it will continue to circulate forever.Eye Records is just one of many,many sources to obtain this stuff.

What the estate should be doing is trying to find a way to beat the bootleggers at their own game......maybe set up a NPG Music Club type of service where fans can legally purchase unreleased Prince music,concerts,etc.

The Prince Estate have neither the power or money to go after eBay - the biggest bootleg company of all time.

Instead the Estate like to intimidate the fans who created Prince's success.

Idiots!

Vannormal said:

There will always be illegal material circulating. Prince was eager when he recorded something and was pretty messy with his stuff in his own camp, don't forget that.

SoulAlive said:

I understand why the estate is suing and they certainly have the right to but.....I just think that it's too late (and kinda pointless) to go after the bootleggers.Prince bootlegs have been circulating since the 80s! So much stuff is already out there and make no mistake,it will continue to circulate forever.Eye Records is just one of many,many sources to obtain this stuff.

What the estate should be doing is trying to find a way to beat the bootleggers at their own game......maybe set up a NPG Music Club type of service where fans can legally purchase unreleased Prince music,concerts,etc.

Right. It's a "supply and demand" situation. There will always be a resource for obtaining bootleg material, but the demand for it is directly proportionate to a better quality and larger supply offered by the Estate. Can't really understand what the main issues are with the Estate's ability to release more music and at a faster pace.

tmcjb said:

darkroman said:

The Prince Estate have neither the power or money to go after eBay - the biggest bootleg company of all time.

Instead the Estate like to intimidate the fans who created Prince's success.

Idiots!

Well....Prince did also attempt to sue 22 fans $1 million each for linking to bootlegs back in 2014. So, I guess they're continuing in that same vein??

I understand the estate and i´d do it the same.

The bootleggers are stealing intellectual property and make $$$ with it.

I don´t want to have someone´s life destroyed in the first place

but on the other hand, they should´ve known.

violetcrush said:

darkroman said:

The Prince Estate have neither the power or money to go after eBay - the biggest bootleg company of all time.

Instead the Estate like to intimidate the fans who created Prince's success.

Idiots!

Well....Prince did also attempt to sue 22 fans $1 million each for linking to bootlegs back in 2014. So, I guess they're continuing in that same vein??

Yes exactly! as they are afraid to take on eBay as they can't afford to!

violetcrush said:

darkroman said:

The Prince Estate have neither the power or money to go after eBay - the biggest bootleg company of all time.

Instead the Estate like to intimidate the fans who created Prince's success.

Idiots!

Well....Prince did also attempt to sue 22 fans $1 million each for linking to bootlegs back in 2014. So, I guess they're continuing in that same vein??

From the bowels of the org:

Prince launches huge lawsuit against bootleg sites
http://prince.org/msg/7/404520



Prince Drops $22 million lawsuit against Alleged Bootleggers

http://prince.org/msg/7/404744