This is the translation of a very interesting topic taken from http://www.pureviolet.org/pureviolet/
From Vibrator with her agreement.
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It makes a very a long time that I wanted to post this topic against the so called "fans" and "fams" having relations with bootlegs.
It might shock you, but I am [bold]totaly opposed to the bootlegs business[/bold ]!
It seems that Prince sends his lawyers back again, and a website - that I will not mention here - just received a legal menace.
I think that hacking an artist as impassioned as Prince, and considering his total opposition to this kind of "activity ", it's like an "artistic rape". Some people are willing to take benefits from an idol of world stature called Prince, Lovesymbol or whaterver.
We, fans, are taken in a terrible vice: we adore Prince the mad creator, but we are suposed to clearly know that he NEVER authorized us to get bootlegs from his vault, concerts, gigs… He even prevented us to get pirates of HIS music and has send an e-mail to make his clear message heard amongst fans.
Prince claimed the masters of his music, complained of being a "slave" of Warner Bros Cie: same thing for his fans. Why would we be different than Warner? Maybe Prince wanted to officially release all of his unrealeased materiel very later (like a kind of "pension found" or revenue for the continuation of his lifestyle after an early stopped career, for example)?
Today, some unknown people own and diffuse pics and sounds for free and make money with it or save money from it, and Prince himself might ignore the existence of some of this material!
Lately, Prince can only (with difficulty) stand by his NPG stuff to make his career really worthy… All of us are responsible of this fact, we have made Prince officialy unworthy.
How many betrayers from the past and now are surounding the man? In the sordid world of Show Business, your own image and creations do not belong to you any more! And we act just the same, like paparazis!
I personaly always limited myself in the acquisition of bootlegs. Prince never promised me anything! While many fans use to complain on non-official websites and forums, his musical "inheritance", his personal treasure, his masterpieces are exploited throughout the world with most often a lack of any good taste!
So here we are, fans who love Roger Nelson the human being as much Prince the Artist, and we should get rid of this nasty practice and habit of wanting to be the first served, to look by the keyhole and to never feel satisfied!
Imagine we don't even know the existence of these bootlegs and never heard of it, Prince would probably be happier today and we would finally stop thinking for him! And how thankful we would be!
So [bold]YES, I wish the websites making promotion of bootlegs will close, YES I'm ready to wait what Prince will later release and say![/bold ] So in a futur concert, I will be able to proudly look at my sweet Prince right in the eyes… :
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Very interesting and daring point of view…

I agree with everything that was said. However, I have a question.

Don't you think that if Prince released material that had been only available as bootlegs that fans who dig him enough to get bootlegs of his would buy the official versions anyway? I know I would, the again, I don't own any bootlegs.

what's this "we" bullshit? 'tis the price one pays for the limelight, sad as it seems. period.

skywalker said:

This post reflects what every man or woman DON'T want to read or hear. The response to your question is: NO. I did not think this way before, but now… I think that bootlegers went too fast and productive with his private and public music (exaclty like the whole boolegs/drug/fakes industry) and he did not have the power to control it. Prince had no choice that watching his "vault, concerts, gigs… " rushing worldwide. And, pleased or not fams might be, Prince definitly has lost a lot of $$$$$ and oportunities with this underground trafic. But we are only human beings…

The reality is, it's out there and the damage has been done. And it had to get out there SOMEHOW, no? But that's another discussion. At this point, the best thing Prince can do is to rechannel the flow of unreleased material into his bank account by making it available, or just deal with the reality of the situation, which is that he has TONS of bootlegs out there, and that they've reached a legendary status, up there with Springsteen's bootlegs and even The Dead's bootlegs. Trading the stuff has become a culture, and if he can brag about D'Angelo's favorite bootleg track, he can appreciate his fans' love of the stuff. Or he can be more careful about what gets leaked...?

Anxiety said:

exactly. and y'think he woulda been careful to prevent leakage in the first place....'prevent leakage'. that sounds bad.

What about fans like me that own all official releases and buy them regardless of what is on the black market. I have hundreds of boots but NPG and PRince lose no money on me. I am a faithful consumer from 1970s

NPGLOVER said:

that too. the majority of my collection is all official stuff, too...whoever typed up the initial post shoulda thought about that.

Solution is simple. We all know that old fans are loyal to the inventive, unique, imaginative sound that was surrounding all of those bootlegs. If they were to be released officially, clear cut versions of what everyone wants and adores to this day, they would sell without a second thought. I wouldn't think twice.

I don`t feel guilty because i own the entire Warner, NPG whatsoever catalogue. Everything official that was out there, i bought it right away.
Since i can`t get enough of his music, i do buy ANYTHING.
I even bought Moni Love`s cd recently(5$, in a word or 2). These tracks
are ...they are.....not so cool. But hey, the cd looks nice in my collection.
I have probably over 300 Prince cd`s . I do not feel guilty.
I do not feel guilty.
No.
Whenever he decides to release the gems, i will buy them once more.
No doubt about that.
I also own a lot of Miles Davis boots. Guilty? Naw...
In his words: Free the music.
There you go, friend. Release it.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

If it were only about the money then that would be a great point. Prince knows that if he officially released all the music in the vault he'd get paid.

However, some of Prince's business decisions are also linked to artistic decisions. If he as an artist decides that he doesn't want to release a portion of his art for whatever reason, then it is not enough to say that we'd be willing to pay him for it. If Prince decides that he doesn't like a song well enough to release it, should he really just release it anyway cause he knows somebody will bootleg it?

If in a really bad lapse of judgment Prince decides to record "Jughead 2", should he just release it when he sobers up just so the bootleggers won't get it?