Lawyers for Bad Bunny have filed a lawsuit against a fan who posted footage of a recent concert on YouTube, claiming the Puerto Rican rapper was effectively forced to sue after the alleged bootlegger asked YouTube to keep the clips online.
In a complaint filed Friday in federal court, lawyers for Bad Bunny (Benito Martinez Ocasio) claimed Eric Guillermo Madroñal Garrone posted videos covering ten songs from a February concert in Salt Lake City on his “MADforliveMUSIC” YouTube channel, infringing copyright and “luring” viewers to his page.
Worse, the suit alleges, when Bad Bunny filed a takedown request with YouTube, Garrone responded with an official counter-notification defending his right to post the clips. That move would legally require YouTube to repost them — unless, that is, Bad Bunny went to court to stop them.
“Defendants have objected to YouTube's removal of the unauthorized bootlegs, refused to agree not to republish the unauthorized bootlegs, and demanded that YouTube restore the unauthorized bootlegs,” Bad Bunny's lawyers wrote. “Unless ordered by this court, the defendants will continue to violate Ocasio's rights.”
Such disputes over online content happen all the time, but are usually resolved without a lawsuit. Under the Digital Age Copyright Act, artists like Bad Bunny can file a takedown request with online platforms like YouTube, demanding that the site remove the allegedly infringing material. This is usually the end of the story, especially in cases of extended footage of full songs.
But the DMCA also empowers Internet users to object to such requests if they believe they've made “fair use” of the material in question—like, say, a news clip of a Bad Bunny concert that incidentally featured some of his music, or a parody video mocking him by riffing on one of his songs.
In the case of Garrone's footage, Bad Bunny's reps filed a takedown notice for all ten clips from the Salt Lake City concert, claiming they contained unauthorized recordings of huge hits like “Yo Perreo Sola,” “Me Porto Bonito,” ” Dakiti” and others. This alert initially succeeded in removing the clips.
However, according to the lawsuit, Garrone then filed a DMCA counter-notification, requesting “the reinstatement of the videos as soon as possible.” In a copy of the notice included in Bad Bunny's lawsuit, Garrone argued that he had made “lawful use of the content” and that the takedown notice “is a serious detriment to my information and outreach activities.”
“The removed videos also cover the launch of Puerto Rican reggaeton artist Bad Bunny's world tour, his first of 47 dates scheduled across North America, itself a high-profile and significant information. Garrone wrote. “In my opinion, the artist also benefits from the dissemination of the content in his own view, as his broadcast is carefully captured, conveying the reality of the moment without alteration or post-production in the content.”
Under the DMCA, this move would require YouTube to republish Garrone's material unless Bad Bunny files a copyright infringement lawsuit within ten days. In an email included in the lawsuit, YouTube warned Bad Bunny's representatives that “if we do not receive a response from you, the content in question may be reinstated.”
“Your response must include evidence that you have taken legal action against the user to prevent the content from being restored to YouTube,” the video site told Bad Bunny's representatives. “Typically, the evidence includes a lawsuit against the producer naming the YouTube URLs at issue and seeking an injunction to restrain the alleged infringement.”
On Friday, Bad Bunny's lawyers did just that. They argued that Garrone's videos “do not qualify as fair use” that would entitle them to reinstatement, and that they instead violated his rights.
“Each of the unauthorized bootlegs, both individually and collectively, adversely affects the market for authorized uses of Bad Bunny's works, including by attracting YouTube viewers and related advertising revenue away from authorized Bad Bunny Works videos” , the rapper said. the lawyers wrote.
The lawsuit also accused Garrone of violating federal trademark law by using Bad Bunny's name to promote the clips and violating a federal law specifically aimed at bootlegging.
Representatives for Bad Bunny did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Garrone could not immediately be reached for comment because his YouTube page has been deactivated.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/business/legal/bad-bunny-lawsuit-fan-bootleg-concert-footage-youtube-1235630112/
