High NPGMC and ORG,

Last summer many of you got an email asking you to send a bunch of CD's to 'The ways of the Pharaoh'.

Apparantly some of the best remixes of some of his greatest hits were never offically authorised for release by Prince. This, if true, would be an act of copyright infringement and/or breach of contract by Warner Brothers.

An email that was send somewhere in july stated this:


"High NPGMC,

We need ur help. The NPG is looking 4 anything with a WB logo that was UNOFFICIALLY released during Prince's tenure at that label."


The email then provided a long list with singles, maxi singels and cd-singles which were unauthorised unofficial material, according to the email.

The official reason for this request apparantly was to gather evidence Prince needed in order to battle WB in court. The last email that was send out regarding this matter was send in august and said:


"High NPGMC

We wanted 2 say thanx 2 all the members who sent in material in response 2 r "Help The Cause" request. We have received more than enuff and truly appreciate ur assistance. We will definitely keep U updated on progress with the case. Again, thank U so much.

Love4oneanother,
The NPG Music Club "


In addition to the list of "unoffical" releases the NPGMC email also asked fans to gather all their Prince bootlegs and send them to the same address, but it wasn't made clear whether that had anything to do with the lawsuit against WB.

Now, my question is: Has anybody heard anything about this lawsuit? Is P winning already? Does anyone know if it has been filed yet?


( I guess I can presume nobody knows the answer, but I'll ask anyway...you never know)


--

I edited the title. Of course, as could be expected, Prince says he will sue WB, but goes out to su2e his fans... once again...
[This message was edited Tue Jan 20 8:39:39 PST 2004 by Abrazo]

Abrazo said:

I think this would make big news, and therefore hasn't been filed yet - but posting something like this here is stupid because it gives Warner's a warning - I request thread deletion.

You know what, A? I would love to know the details of that suit as well as the circumstances surrounding the contract Prince signed with WB in the first place. Was the contract something he signed willingly and wanted to back out of or did he realize that it was one of the things he realized he wouldn't be able to control so he wanted out?

Spookymuffin said:

There is nothing in A's thread that hasn't already been posted here before. Most of us members got that e-mail he's talking about.

TheOrgerFormerlyKnownAs said:

I don't know what spooky's problem is, but thanks for giving the answer.

TheOrgerFormerlyKnownAs said:

I really honestly don't know much about the circumstances and his wishes. Prince never really opened up about it. I know of course about the 100 million dollar clause and WB owning the masters. But for the rest it's tiny bits about, for example, how he earned very little royalties for 'The very best of'. All the info that I know of is pretty much one-sided and probably not too reliable. I never read or heard a statement from WB about it.

So, as far as I can tell, you could conclude that Prince wanted to get out of the deal he willingly signed, because it didn't give him all that he wanted, which was probably everything: full artistic control, full legal and economic control, fully free to leave whenever or do and say whatever and full compensation.

Abrazo said:

he's a young'n

Milty said:

Ah.. ok, no biggy.

nothing will come about of it... i feel sorry for the saps that fell for it.

Abrazo said:

I'm sorry.

*eating popcorn*

CherrieMoonKisses said:

may i have some?

Gosh... not a lot popcorn..

Isn't there any member that knows what's going on?

Cborgman... you say you feel sorry for the saps that fell for this and that nothing will come about of it. Do you mean there is no lawsuit?

Abrazo said:

well, i can't say for certain, no, but the odds are pretty freaking good that it won't happen.

cborgman said:

So I gather that the NPGMC hasn't said anything yet about the progress they are making? If nothing happens wouldn't that be yet another evil trick Prince pulled on his fans? If it doesn't happen then what was the use of sending those CD's in anyway? (not that I ever believed he really needed them for evidence)

Abrazo said:

another evil pronce versus his fans thing, yes. i mean think about it, those ones the e-mail listed are not hard tot find at all, and it's not like he needs them as physical evidence for a lawsuit to begin with. and they also asked that bootlegs also be included too, but WB had nothing to do with those.

it was just another of those things he does that piss us off.

i just feel bad for all the fams that thought they were doing him a favor and mailed em in.

cborgman said:

I thought about that yes. In fact, frankly I never believed their reason anyway. Man, how can somebody be such an asshole? These cd's, especially from the 82-86 era contain some of the best remixes of these songs ever. But what does Prince want? He doesn't want his fans to have them! Totally incomprehensible. Isn't there really any other explanation for this???

Somebody... anybody.. please explain what other motivation Prince could have had...

At this point there is no "lawsuit". They may have resolved the matter through settlment. Or Prince changed his mind. Or it just hasn't happened yet. lotta possibilities...

It wasn't the tracks/mixes on these releases that was the
problem. It was the unauthorised re-issue of previously
issued material in a new format without the artist's
permission that was the problem.

Universaluv said:

Or they could inform the people that send in CD's and tell them what's going on, like they promised.

BorisFishpaw said:

Interesting. Can I ask you this?

1) that new format means CD? Thus the re-issued material was released before on (maxi)single and cassette and was never authorised for CD?
2) How come unauthorised? that would mean that WB doesn't fully own the copyrights, but only certain rights and thus that prince's contract wasn't all that bad.
3) how do you know this?

Abrazo said:

No, it doesn't necessarily mean CD, what it means is; any new
configuration of released material that hasn't been agreed.

for example: The US 'Scandalous Sex Suite' CD single is an
authorised WB release. Prince created the music, decided on
the format, what tracks would be included, what the artwork
would be etc. The 'official' releases for this CD single
was the 5 track one released in the US, this is what Prince
agreed. WB can make as many of these as they like and
re-issue it if they want, but what they CAN'T do (without
Prince's permission) is change the cover or add (or takeaway)
tracks to it, or remix or remaster the tracks.

When the Scandalous Sex Suite was issued in Japan, it was
a 9 track CD that included the 4 Partyman remixes as well
as the agreed 5 tracks. It is THIS release that Prince is
saying was unauthorised. For this release WB changed the
format of the agreed release (by adding extra tracks to it)
without asking his permission first.

It's the same reason that WB cannot remaster Prince's
back catalogue or add bonus tracks to the CDs etc. as this
would change the albums from what was originally agreed. For
WB to do this would mean they would have to come to a new
agreement with Prince.

When I first heard about him wanting us to send him unauthorized material, I told my girlfriend who like some Prince but shes not into everything! She about fell down laughing. IHO: This was just a way to get some fans to send in boots and get them off the street. Prince would do anything to clear the boots out of the market! Out of homes! The lawsuit and all it was all just bull.

On the lawsuit- Sounds likes Prince's attorneys are getting their ducks in a row. These industry contracts are pretty iron-clad, finding a chink in the armor may allow prince to ask the court to decide whether WB was negligent or in breach-it's all about the masters of course.
Prince know he can't do anything about boots', Anyone who owns them and sent them to pp had the opportunity to copy them so it's not like you would loose the music. Brother just trying to get paid for his labor of love!

++Prince Knows (sorry)

popgodazipa said:

how does sending boots to him equal paying him (more) money?

realm said:

A bit.. ahem... silly to tink you can get all the boots from the street that way.

BorisFishpaw said:

I hear you loud and clear and conclude that, if your interpretation is correct, WB doesn't fully own all the master's copyrights due to incomplete transfers of copyrights, and Prince hasn't got such a bad contract after all.

If that is the case Prince could have also sued WB a long time ago. Since he doesn't I gather he isn't because he is hoping WB will transfer all rights back to him out of fear of a major lawsuit, which could possibly confirm that also in the music business contractual tranfers of copyrights must be interpretated restrictively and in generally in favour of the weaker party (the artist).

--
[This message was edited Sun Jan 18 12:02:17 PST 2004 by Abrazo]

Spookymuffin said:

Don't worry, I already sent an email to Warner's attorney giving them a heads up months ago. (As thanks, his client sent me a DAT recording of this Prince studio track called "Wally"... it's kind of deep!)

BanishedBrian said:

Oh my...