His last album was so crap he had to give it away with a newspaper.

who has been downloading Village People? C'mon, own up.

I don't want to condone Internet piracy or anything, but the Village People? Really, how much annual revenue are they losing to illegal downloads?

Would £20 cover it, do you think?

*Yes, I know they don't host anything so you're not downloading from them

Mine's the one with the skull and crossbones on it and the matching hardhat.

I paid for 48hours on the Storm Botnet with the principle purpose of distributing YMCA to all and sundry.

If it wasn't free, it should have been !

It's fun to stay at the r-i-a-a.

It's fun to stay at the r-i-a-a.

It's a new tactic. Payup or they'll tell your friends what you've been doing. Given that mud sticks they could even get people who didn't download VP to pay up just so the doubt wouldn't be there.

I may be mistaken here, but I was under the impression that The Village People are just a bunch of singer/dancers who were used to perform someone else's work. If that is the case -- then surely they don't own any copyright on any of "their" music anyhow?

Similarly, I was under the impression that most of Prince's earlier work (arguable the most popular but I wouldn't know) was taken by his record company?

So when your career is over as an artist, and the world has moved on, you have three choices to try and earn your crust, 1. write your autobiography/expose of the industry and hope someone is interested enough to buy it and even read it. 2. Flip burgers, get a regular job or 3. Sue everybody and anybody for Piracy?

The small purple one should join the village people and tour, I'd pay good money NOT to see them!

Joke alert, because that is what Prince and the Village people are these days.

Is he some new talent that I'm yet to hear of?

Erm, dunno if you noticed but Prince DID do a fair few live dates in London last summer. I went to one: rather good, perhaps a little inspired by James Brown and all that showy stuff, but still a good night out.

Sadly I've yet to enjoy the delights of The Village People at The O2...

Paris: cos I bet she'd be right at home at either gig.

Come on, this is a joke right? The Village People are loosing money on downloads?

YMCA comes free on every £2.99 cheesey karaoke CD

This Prince is opbviously someone who is very protective of their IP. As such they can have no connection with the Prince who gave his own CD away.

You have a lot of stones with you when you walk in to the glass-house of defending your copyright when you gave the origonal away for free...

Is The Amazing Christopher - if you can find a vid of his genius Why-Em-See-Ay (just in case YMCA is (r) (tm) (c) (p) (arse) oh damn I said YMCA. Oh no I said it again... )

The best clip is the one that's been yanked from YouTube by people angry at not being paid for people watching a clip of performing something to a tune from 30 years ago,sadly, even though they paid nothing for the clip that gives free promotion to their product.

Now there's an idea... how about people demand the record co's pay up for advertising when people do stuff like that... (and then I awoke and the dream faded)

ianal, but if iremember right, songs have 2 sets of copyright, one for the writer, and another for the performer. So if you sing YMCA, you need to pay the writer, if you play YMCA by the village people, you pay both.

I think my dad may have bought his album. I think the intertubes are a bit novel for him so he wouldn't have stolen it. Actually, he wouldn't know a bit torrent from a hole in the ground so probably they should sue him. He's the only one with any money. Certainly no-one downloading Van has any intention or ability to buy his stuff.

The parasitic ( ie. non productive ) parts of the music industry Record Labels, BPI, RIAA has-been artists etc should be required to meet the same criteria that insurance companies use when assessing a claim:

If they cannot provide conclusive documentary evidence of their alleged losses - there is no case to answer

Oh God, you MUST visit the Official Village People site:

http://www.officialvillagepeople.com/

Turn up your speakers, because in finest Geocities fashion it even has music!

Then check out the discography. The VP released three albums that anyone bought, and three more that no-one noticed.

Village People - LP/USA/Casablanca 1977

Macho Man - LP/USA/Casablanca 1978

Cruisin' - LP/USA/Casablanca 1978

Renaissance - LP/USA/Casablanca 1981 (did anyone buy this?)

Fox On The Box - LP/USA/RCA-Victor 1982 (likewise)

Sex Over The Phone - LP/France/Black Scorpio-CBS 1985 (Eh?)

They then recycled these into THIRTEEN "Greatest Hits" packages! (well, one was a movie soundtrack).

Live Album: Live and Sleazy - 2LP/USA/Casablanca 1979

Movie Soundtrack: Can't Stop The Music - LP/USA/Casablanca 1980

In The Street - LP/USA/Casablanca 1983

Greatest Hits - LP/USA/Rhino 1988

Greatest Hits '89 Remixes - CD/BCM Records 1989

The Best Of Village People - CD/USA/Polygram 1994

L'Album d'or 93/94- CD/France/AMC 1994

The Best Of - CD/Australia/1994

We Want You - CD/Germany/1997

We Want You - CD/France/Scorpio Music1998

The Very Best Of - CD/USA/Polygram 1998

We Want You The Ultimate Collection - 2CD/

Greatest Hits w/ 2 Millenium Remixes - CD/UK/

20th Century Masters, The Millenium Collection.

At least Right Said Fred understood that he was a one hit wonder.

When do people ever listen to The Village People. I can only think of a few occasions in any man's (or woman's) life when it's deemed acceptable:

1) Weddings

2) Karaoke (when VERY drunk though)

err...

3) Weddings? I don't think I mentioned weddings.

(Gotta choose Paris as icon here... doesn't her family own a couple of YMCA hostels? or something...)

Hilarity ensues.

I have to admit downloading one of the VP's tracks a few years ago. Purely out of nostalgia, to listen to it just the once. The title?

Macho Man - 12" version.

There was also a 7" version. And all of this before the event of the Little Blue Pill.

Mine's the leather one with the matching cap.

You're forgetting "I'm too sexy"

(and according to Wikipedia, that fountain of knowledge, I'm too sexy 2007 - the Remix)

(also in brackets: fun but true fact: I was once neighbours with the bald guy from R.S.F. He had a dog. Dunno what kind, but it was small and furry).

(Final bracket note: if you were forced to, for the rest of your life, listen to either the Village People or R.S.F., and nothing else... which one would you go for?)

...no-one's attempted a humorous juxtaposition of the Village People's other hit - "In The Navy" - with The Pirate Bay.

However, now I come to mention it, I can't think of one.

The sailor's hat, please. And the feathers. And the leather cap.

I'm guessing it was assumed that "I'm Too Sexy" was the mistakenly identified one-hit-wonder!

But you are forgetting Swan...

Mine's is the leather one with no shirt and the oil in the pocket

Right Said Fred were a group, so I can only assume that the "he" refers to Bernard Cribbins, who performed the song Right Said Fred. I seem to remember reading that Paul Weller's dad was very confused back in 1991 when he asked Paul what was number 1 in the US. He couldn't understand why those crazy Yanks would like Bernard Cribbins.

Bernard was not a one hit wonder either, also scoring success with Hole in the Ground and Gossip Calypso.

Oh God!!! The Humor!!! The Humor!!! (pun of marland brando from "the deer hunter"

They are Princes by title and by right, it isn't just a monicker they've nicked from somewhere. I'd like to see them sue the squiggle's ass off. Who would you rather watch? Little squiggly boy squeaking and squealing or Prince Philip proving the Royal Family does indeed have a sense of humour.

Anyone who chooses to name themselves after a squiggle shaped like a bogie doesn't deserve to be taken seriously IMHO.

I like asking members of the US Senate if they paid the royalties for singing "God Bless America" to an audience of a billion people. Even at the discount rate of .02 (is Congress not-for profit?) they owe the Boy and Girl Scouts of America $20 at least million dollars in royalties.

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20020428

American law does not apply to the whole world!!!

The reason the PirateBay stil operates is that, in sweden, its perfectly legal to provied links to copyright material, as long as you don't actually host/distibute any. They, very politely, reiterate this to the American lawyers who keep sending them legal threats too.

I would choose to swallow my tongue and choke to death. Unless, of course I was in Hell in which case I would probably just come back as Philip Rose's catamite.

"They are Princes by title and by right, it isn't just a monicker they've nicked from somewhere"

Prince is the name given to him by his parents. Prince Rogers Nelson being his full name.

Dude,

Sorry to be anal, but Marlon Brando does says "the horror ... the horror..." in Apocalypse Now. He wasn't in The Deer Hunter.

I really hate Internet pedantry, so I'll stop now.

I grew up in Minneapolis about the same time he did. I didn't go to his school, but I've known about twenty people who did, and they all agree. Prince is a self righteous, pompous arrogant asshole.

Always has been, always will be. Prince is pompous jerk, is a statement on par with, the sky is wide and blue, the ocean is big and wet and George Bush Junior is kind of stupid.

So, the new Village People song is going to be "YDMCA" ?