According to reports, the “Purple Rain” singer is suing 22 bloggers and Facebook users for bootlegging his live concerts. He wasn’t about to identity all of the defendants in the multimillion-dollar copyright lawsuit, but he’s still demanding they each pay $1 million in damages.
In the 21-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the singe claims the defendants engaged “in massive infringement and bootlegging of Prince’s material.”
Spin reprots:
The lawsuit targets Dan Chodera, Karina Jindrova, and 20 anonymous defendants. Chodera and Jindrova allegedly operated a no-longer-online Facebook account that posted a bunch of bootleg Prince videos. The other defendants — “Does” 1 through 20 — are accused of similar infractions, such as pointing to a 1983 Chicago set from WorldofBootleg.blogspot.com.
Prince asks for a jury trial, which, though highly unlikely, would have to make for some fascinating courtroom drama. In addition to the $22 million total in damages, Prince wants the defendants permanently blocked from infringing on his copyrights. He also wants them to forfeit any money they may have made from his music — with interest — and to return any “unlawful materials” to their rightful Purple custody. Oh, and they’d better cover his lawyers’ fees, too. The defendants haven’t commented publicly yet, but it’s theoretically possible they thought they were actually sharing concerts by Phish, right? Only, like, four letters off!
