Prince $22 Million Lawsuit Goes After Fans Posting Live Shows and Links Online
I Want A 'High-Quality Experience for Fans,' Says Musician
Prince filed a lawsuit for $22 million against 22 Facebook users whom he accused of bootlegging his music performed at live shows. The Minneapolis musician said his initial cease and desist letters were ignored, but since the lawsuit has been filed the infringing links have been taken down.
Prince's lawsuit highlighted those who were posting links to illegal downloads of live recordings dating all the way back to 1983, although more recent shows were also included. Hundreds of links were posted via Facebook and Google's Blogger platform, and when the music artist asked them to take the bootlegs down, they did.
"Defendants rely on either Google's Blogger platform or Facebook, or both, to accomplish their unlawful activity," the lawsuit reads. "Rather than publishing lawful content to their blogs, they typically publish posts that list all the songs performed at a certain Prince live show and then provide a link to a file sharing service where unauthorized copies of the performance can be downloaded."
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Although most of the bootleggers- some are named TheUltimateBootlegExperience, Purplehouse2 and PurpleKissTwo, according to ABC News- didn't contest Facebook and Google's response, two did. Dan Chodera and Karina Jindrova of kristynafanpage had posted videos of Prince live and objected to them being taken down, so musician filed a lawsuit to prevent them from being reposted.
Chodera and Jindrova have not been served because they live in France and the Czech Republic, respectively. The lawsuit states that every online account is being sued for $1 million.
"Our continuous goal is to provide a high quality experience for fans," Prince said in a statement released by his lawyer, Rhonda Trotter of Los Angeles. "When we see material that does not represent that quality, we will ask to have it taken down. We regret that we had to take this action to be taken seriously. However, we are pleased that the material has been taken down. That is our goal."
While some lawyers have agreed that Prince certainly has a legal precedent to sue for rightful distribution of his music, this isn't the first time the musician has been litigious. In 2007, sued file-sharing website The Pirate Bay unsuccessfully and also warned fan sites about posting his image. That same year, he also forced a mother in California to remove a video of her baby dancing to "Let's Go Crazy."
