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.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

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

19 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

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

Doh!
.

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

.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Gwiz (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 12:25pm

Re: Doh!
Prince, A.K.A. The artist formerly known.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

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]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
kenichi tanaka (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 1:04pm

All this means is that they'll be refiling their lawsuit correctly.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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.'
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2014 @ 1:36pm

Re:
It's caused by the long term effects of benzoylmethylecgonine on the brain.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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'?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2014 @ 6:57am

The artist currently known as "wack-job."
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]