11:53AM
According to new reports, Prince is dropping this lawsuit with no details from his legal teams as to why. According to documents seized by TMZ, the lawsuit was without prejudice, meaning that Prince hasn’t waived any rights and can re-launch the suit whenever he feels like it. At this time however, a new lawsuit seems unlikely.
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If you’re a person who downloads music free online or upload performance videos to Youtube, make sure it’s not of Prince. In short, he is protective over his art, and you will feel his wrath if you infringe on his copyright.
Case in point, the Pop icon is suing twenty two (22) fans for allegedly posting illegal downloads of his live performances online.
According to UK’s The Independent, the 55-year-old filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in the Northern District of California on Jan 16 (2014), suing each violator for $1 million each, which totals to $22 million.
“The Defendants in this case engage in massive infringement and bootlegging of Prince's material,” the lawsuit reads. “Defendants rely on either Google's Blogger platform or Facebook, or both, to accomplish their unlawful activity.”
The complaint also states: “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.”
Two of the “bootleggers” were named in the suit while the other 20 were identified by their online user names.
Content in the lawsuit dates back to performances from 1983 — Going that far back means these fans were avid supporters of the superstar, but this will now more than like change. Since Prince filed the suit, there has been quite an uproar from fans with some insisting he will “lose fans.”
Thoughts?
Founder and Creator of Singersroom.com and IncredibleWork.com. Follow me on Instagram at @gary.gentles.
