That Was Fast: Prince Has Already Filed To Dismiss Ridiculous Lawsuit Against 22 Fans

from the prince-world dept

Wed, Jan 29th 2014 12:02pm — Mike Masnick

Just a couple days ago, we wrote about the ridiculously laughable lawsuit that Prince had filed against 22 fans for merely linking to bootlegs. Beyond the stupidity of suing fans, suing over linking and suing over bootlegs, we pointed out a variety of legal problems with the lawsuit, including the fact that Prince's lawyer seemed confused about how copyright damages actually work, the nature of direct vs. indirect copyright infringement and a few other issues. So, perhaps it shouldn't be that surprising that it took just a few days for Prince's lawyers to file to dismiss the lawsuit. They're doing so without prejudice, which is standard, but does mean they could try to sue again at a later date, should Prince wake up at 3am in January in Minnesota and decide that, rather than needing a camel, he wants to sue some of his biggest fans all over again.

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Filed Under: bootlegs, fans, linking, prince, prince world

19 Comments

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GeneralEmergency (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 12:14pm

Doh!
.

Prince, A.K.A. The artist formerly known as 'Petitioner'.

.
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- Gwiz (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 12:25pm
  
  Re: Doh!
  Prince, A.K.A. The artist formerly known.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2014 @ 12:38pm
    
    Re: Re: Doh!
    Technically, it's "that artist formerly known as The artist formerly known as..." ad infinitum. But for sanity reasons, we call him, Sweet Prince.
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- DannyB (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 1:33pm
  
  Re: Doh!
  Can the name of the complaining party in a lawsuit be an unpronounceable symbol?
  
  Or could it be "the artist formerly known as Prince"?
  
  Could dismissing the lawsuit be due to entering the manic phase? Can we then expect the lawsuits to be re-filed again?
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  - alan turing, 29 Jan 2014 @ 2:06pm
    
    Re: Re: Doh!
    More likely than not it is indicative of the poor fellow coming down from the manic phase, when logic once again makes an appearance.
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  - Ben (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 2:08pm
    
    Re: Re: Doh!
    Prince, formerly known as an unpronounceable symbol, I believe was under a contract with Warner Brothers such that he could not use "Prince" for a number of years (or was it albums?) unless it was with Warner Brothers. Since he was having "artistic differences" with them he was in the position of not being able to go elsewhere under the name "Prince". He started using "Prince" again in 2000.
    
    I wonder if any of the 22 people formerly known as "defendant" have recourse to punishing Prince for the suits.
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    - ltlw0lf (profile), 30 Jan 2014 @ 7:18am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Doh!
      I wonder if any of the 22 people formerly known as "defendant" have recourse to punishing Prince for the suits.
      
      IANAL, but from what I understand listening to Ken @ PopeHat / DTD / FCT all these years, they only could if they already responded to the complaint. I am pretty sure most of them were still looking for lawyers or may not have even been aware yet that they were being sued.
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out_of_the_blue, 29 Jan 2014 @ 12:48pm

And now, everyone KNOWS names of his biggest fans...
Bet their sites received many new visits. Besides everyone is reminded how awesome Prince was/is.

So, cheap publicity.

Mike loves, and in his minor way, benefits from these stunts.
Pirates: next time you wish to "share", just email the artist and see if you can get permission... (191 of 192)

08:48:33[j-305-6]
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- beat box, 29 Jan 2014 @ 2:30pm
  
  Re: And now, everyone KNOWS names of his biggest fans...
  He's that sneaky and clever, I wouldn't put it past him.
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  - beat box, 29 Jan 2014 @ 2:32pm
    
    Re: Re: And now, everyone KNOWS names of his biggest fans...
    Prince not Mike. I fell into that one.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2014 @ 1:04pm

What were the lawyers thinking?
You have to wonder why the lawyers files flawed suits in the first place. Maybe it was the Prince world effect, where no one can tell him no.
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- That One Guy (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 1:08pm
  
  Re: What were the lawyers thinking?
  I imagine it was something along the lines of 'This guy has no idea what he's asking for, obviously doesn't know the law, but I'm getting paid the same anyway, and I'd probably be replaced if I pointed this out, so might as well.'
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kenichi tanaka (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 1:04pm

All this means is that they'll be refiling their lawsuit correctly.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2014 @ 1:22pm

strange how having a lot of money gained from having fans seems to breed total idiots who want to do what they can to fuck those fans off and lose the earnings!
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- Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2014 @ 1:36pm
  
  Re:
  It's caused by the long term effects of benzoylmethylecgonine on the brain.
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Mike, 29 Jan 2014 @ 1:24pm

Prince, or whatever the Hell is name is, is so yester-year. Just another has-been looking for relevancy!
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That One Guy (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 2:13pm

So can we now refer to this as 'The lawsuit formerly filed on behalf of the artist formerly known as Prince'?
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Daemon_ZOGG, 30 Jan 2014 @ 1:40am

"PRINCE Has ALREADY Filed To Dismiss RIDICULOUS Lawsuit Against 22 Fans
Old-Fart syndrome set in too early for prince a long time ago. Not the first time he's gone after fans. Somebody must have switched out his Geritol with a placebo or something, again.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2014 @ 6:57am

The artist currently known as "wack-job."
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