Prince Drops $22 Million Anti-Fan Lawsuit
Prince has dropped his $22 million lawsuit punishing fans for posting links to old concert videos. Prince's lawyer has issued a statement to TMZ: "Because of the recent pressure, the bootleggers have now taken down the illegal downloads and are no longer engaging in piracy. We recognize the fans craving for as much material as possible, but we’d prefer they get it from us directly than from third parties who are scalpers rather than real fans of our work."
MORE:
Last week, Prince had continued his career long litigious streak with a new attack on some of his biggest fans. The lawsuit filed in San Francisco court sought to punish fans who found and linked to old concert videos of Prince concerts and posted them on Facebook and blogs. The suit named 22 fans – 20 unidentified – and asked for $1 million each or $22 million in damages.
The 21 page suit targeted mostly Prince fan sites with names like Purple House, Purple Kiss and Funky Experience Four for sharing bootleg recordings. The lawsuit alleged that "constitute an interconnected network of bootleg distribution which is able to broadly disseminate unauthorised copies of Prince's musical compositions and live performances".
On the unofficial Prince forum prince.org, fans reacted negatively:
Another lawsuit once again….?????
is this a joke, what a black day in Prince history.
Proven once again: Prince is an a*sehole.
Another reason for me to quit the Prince world, his new music sucks anyway.
