Pop icon Prince is suing fans who posted his live performances on Facebook or blogs - to the tune of £605,000 (NZ$1,216,500) each.
The Purple Rain singer filed a copyright lawsuit on January 16 in the Northern District of California, targeting 22 individuals he believes have committed "massive infringement and bootlegging" of his copyright.
Prince, real name Prince Rogers Nelson, has named just two of the defendants by their real names - Dan Chodera and Karina Jindrova. The remaining 20 are referenced only as 'Doe', bar eight who are indicated by their website titles. Monikers such as PurpleKissTwo and FunkyExperienceFour suggest the content, some of which dates back to 1983, is aimed at Prince's most dedicated fans.
"Defendants rely on either Google's Blogger platform or Facebook, or both, to accomplish their unlawful activity," court papers read. "Rather than publishing lawful content to their blogs, they typically publish posts that list all the songs performed at a certain Prince live show and then provide a link to a file sharing service where unauthorised copies of the performance can be downloaded."
Prince's lawyers claim to have discovered more than 363 illicit links on one website alone, which he says will "continue to cause substantial, immediate and irreparable injury" that cannot be adequately remedied through the courts.
