You can be on Entrepreneur’s cover!

Prince Targets His Biggest Fans in New Copyright Suit Instead of targeting file sharing sites, Prince is now suing 22 website owners and Facebook users for copyright violation -- many of whom are likely his biggest fans.

By Geoff Weiss

entrepreneur daily

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The question of artistic ownership has long vexed the recording artist Prince -- who once changed his name to an unpronounceable "Love Symbol' as a result of trademark disputes with his record label.

Now, the notoriously litigious star is taking aim at a rather unexpected group of defendants in a copyright suit filed last week: his own fans.

Prince is demanding $1 million each from 22 different website owners and Facebook users whom he alleges have shared bootleg footage of his concerts.

While only two defendants were referenced by name, others were mentioned in court papers by the names of their blogs. With titles like PurpleHouse2 and PurpleKissTwo, it is likely that some of the defendants -- who allegedly shared live concert footage that in some cases dates back to 1983 -- are among the artist's biggest fans.

This isn't Prince's first attempt at clamping down on the online piracy of his works. In 2007, the singer unsuccessfully threatened legal action against YouTube, eBay and torrent sharing site The Pirate Bay for copyright violations. This time, however, he has bypassed the sites to target the bloggers and social media users themselves.

Related: Legal Basics: What You Need to Know About the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Geoff Weiss

Former Staff Writer

Geoff Weiss is a former staff writer at Entrepreneur.com.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Business News

Mark Zuckerberg Told Meta Engineers to 'Figure Out' Snapchat's Privacy Protections: 'We Have No Analytics on Them'

Recently unsealed court documents detail "Project Ghostbusters," Meta's project to work around Snapchat's end-to-end encryption to intercept data.

Business News

Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Multibillion-Dollar Crypto Fraud

Southern District of New York Judge Lewis Kaplan said that the loss amount to the victims of Bankman-Fried's crimes surpassed $550 million.

Growing a Business

The Brand Whiz Behind Sun Bum Is Famous For Making Boring Products Fun. Then, This One Stumped Him.

Everything Tom Rinks touched turned to gold until he took on a brand launch at Target that fizzled. Then, he found a creepy doll on Ebay, and he saw a way forward.

Thought Leaders

How To Improve Your Soft Skills and Emotional Intelligence in 7 Easy Steps

Using these simple but effective approaches will help a person in their business, life and relationships.