Prince Facebook Inc (FB) Fans Sued For Posting Links

Updated on

The ever-litigious artist formerly known as Prince has struck again. According to the Consequence of Sound, Prince filed a lawsuit last week at San Francisco’s U.S. district court alleging that 22 plaintiffs had illegally shared bootleg recordings of his concerts via their Facebook pages.

Prince Facebook Inc (FB) Fans Sued For Posting Links

Prince lawsuit detail

The lawsuit is claiming one million dollars in damages from each defendant, for a total of $22 million. Only two defendants are named in the filing, the others remain anonymous for now. Music and fan community sources, however, say the list of defendants includes “regular fans” who derived little to no profit from posting the bootleg Prince concert videos.

It should be noted that the man of many monikers is well known for suing various parties in regards to his musical copyrights, and that the majority of these suits are dropped or dismissed. That said, a number of Prince’s lawsuits have resulted in settlements or judgements, and this one appears to be a pretty airtight case.

Statements in legal filings

According to statements filed with the lawsuit and obtained through an FOI request, Prince’s attorneys allege the defendant’s websites represent “massive infringement and bootlegging of Prince’s material”, with each web page perpetrating to “up to thousands of separate acts of infringement and bootlegging”. The filings also claimed that the fan websites “constitute an interconnected network of bootleg distribution which is able to broadly disseminate unauthorized copies of Prince’s musical compositions and live performances”.

The defendants allegedly shared bootleg recordings such as Prince’s March 24th, 2011 performance in Charlotte, North Carolina, his April 24, 2002 show in Oakland, California, as well as a vintage April 10th,1983 concert in Chicago.

Other Prince news

In other Prince news, the Man in a Raspberry Beret announced plans for a brief London tour later this year with a somewhere between formal and funky press conference in the London living room of Lianne La Havas last week.

Last but not least, Prince and his all-female group 3RDEYEGIRL are also planning to release an album titled PLECTRUMELECTRUM by the end of the year.

Leave a Comment