11–19 of 19 posts
Ha! You type "P" for the symbol-- so he doesn't have his own Unicode codepoint? The font may have an ambiguous license, but it appears that it was meant to be widely distributed to promote Prince. Is it available anywhere? I could make my own, but that wouldn't be the same.
For those who don't know, Prince legally changed his name to a made-up unpronounceable symbol in the early 90's to sidestep restrictions in the contract he had signed with his record company, Warner, which at the time had the rights to use the name "Prince" for music and merchandise. After the legal name change, news outlets started calling him "the artist formerly known as Prince." Meanwhile, Warner had no rights to…
Is the part about him legally changing his name really true? All the sources say so, but surely there are laws and regulations around name changes in the US. I have a hard time imagining the IRS having him down as the symbol. Also, changing your name can't be a legal way of getting out of contracts, can it? If it is, then someone should let Ke$ha know...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is the part about him legally changing his name really true? All the sources say so, but surely there are laws and regulations around name changes in the US. I have a hard time imagining the IRS having him down as the symbol. Also, changing your name can't be a legal way of getting out of contracts, can it? If it is, then someone should let Ke$ha know...
Looking at the discography and discussion on the Wikipedia artivle, I don't think the name change got him out of his contract. It seems that he had to release a certain number of albums to finish his contract. I think by using the symbol on those albums, he prevented Warner brothers from having rights to use his name in connection with it. He probably negotiated his next contract a bit differently.
Ha! You type "P" for the symbol-- so he doesn't have his own Unicode codepoint? The font may have an ambiguous license, but it appears that it was meant to be widely distributed to promote Prince. Is it available anywhere? I could make my own, but that wouldn't be the same.
No, he doesn't, and it's a crying shame. Contact your local Unicode consortium representative - If and 𒀽 deserve Unicode codepoints, the artist formerly known as Prince surely does too.
We've done it before on HN:
For those who don't know, Prince legally changed his name to a made-up unpronounceable symbol in the early 90's to sidestep restrictions in the contract he had signed with his record company, Warner, which at the time had the rights to use the name "Prince" for music and merchandise. After the legal name change, news outlets started calling him "the artist formerly known as Prince." Meanwhile, Warner had no rights to…
Is the part about him legally changing his name really true? All the sources say so, but surely there are laws and regulations around name changes in the US. I have a hard time imagining the IRS having him down as the symbol. Also, changing your name can't be a legal way of getting out of contracts, can it? If it is, then someone should let Ke$ha know...
For those who don't know, Prince legally changed his name to a made-up unpronounceable symbol in the early 90's to sidestep restrictions in the contract he had signed with his record company, Warner, which at the time had the rights to use the name "Prince" for music and merchandise. After the legal name change, news outlets started calling him "the artist formerly known as Prince." Meanwhile, Warner had no rights to…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, he doesn't, and it's a crying shame. Contact your local Unicode consortium representative - If and 𒀽 deserve Unicode codepoints, the artist formerly known as Prince surely does too.
To propose this character to the UTC (Unicode Technical Committee) you'll need to include as many examples as possible showing the symbol used in running text. Physical objects and logos won't do; you need to show historical use of the symbol in running text (newspaper or magazine articles, books, liner notes, et cetera). Find examples, and we could make the proposal. We've done it before on HN: https://github.com/jl…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To propose this character to the UTC (Unicode Technical Committee) you'll need to include as many examples as possible showing the symbol used in running text. Physical objects and logos won't do; you need to show historical use of the symbol in running text (newspaper or magazine articles, books, liner notes, et cetera). Find examples, and we could make the proposal. We've done it before on HN: https://github.com/jl…
Unicode tends to resist adding symbols for specific people, companies, or brands. They'll say to put it in the private use area.
A code point is needed for Prince's symbol now. It's no longer merely pop culture but history and law.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unicode tends to resist adding symbols for specific people, companies, or brands. They'll say to put it in the private use area.
You're right, and IIRC this symbol has been proposed before unsuccessfully. But recent events have called to attention the backstory behind Prince's symbol---how it was created for use as a tool to modify an unfair contract, and how that successful hack opened up the recording industry for artists---many articles were printed about it at the time (most of them missing the point), a few books were written since, lots…
And here's why excluding people is nice: I'd say there's history involved in the fact that the North Korean encoding (KPS 9566) has codepoints for special decorative characters for writing "Kim Jong-Il", but Unicode isn't putting those in either.