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Prince drops $22 million lawsuit against alleged music pirates

Prince drops $22 million lawsuit against alleged music pirates

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Prince (Flickr)
Prince (Flickr)

Just a few days after Prince made the fairly audacious move of suing 22 Facebook and Blogger users for "massive infringement and bootlegging of Prince's material," the $22 million lawsuit has apparently been dropped. According to TMZ, which claims to have acquired the court filings, Prince dropped the suit less than two weeks after initially filing it in the Northern District of California — though it's worth noting that he could reopen the charges down the line if he wanted to.

Prince's lawyer also sent TMZ a statement confirming that the suit had been dropped, saying that "because of the recent pressure, the bootleggers have now taken down the illegal downloads and are no longer engaging in piracy." The statement also asked fans to get material straight from Prince through legal channels, not from "third parties who are scalpers rather than real fans of our work." While the lawsuit was a bit surprising (as is the quick reversal), it's not really a shock to see Prince raging against the internet — earlier this year, Prince's label started a crusade against Vine videos featuring Prince's music, just the latest in the artist's crusade to end all unauthorized usage of his work.