Salt Lake City, UT: Bad Bunny’s recent show in Salt Lake City is currently the subject of a federal court dispute.
Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, a reggaeton artist, is suing a Spanish YouTube channel operator for allegedly uploading unauthorized videos of 10 songs he played in Utah to YouTube. Martinez Ocasio has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco accusing Eric Guillermo Madroñal Garrone, from Madrid, Spain, of copyright infringement and breaching U.S. bootlegging laws on March 8.
The lawsuit states that each video from the show has a negative effect on the market for authorized uses of Bad Bunny’s works by diverting YouTube viewers and associated advertising revenue from authorized videos and the official Bad Bunny YouTube channel. The concert in Salt Lake City at the Delta Center marked the beginning of Bad Bunny’s Most Wanted Tour, concluding on May 26 in Miami.
Bad Bunny is seeking $150,000 per video, $1.5 million in total, or damages along with Madroñal’s profits from the YouTube postings. He is also pursuing a permanent order to prohibit Madroñal and his associates from sharing Bad Bunny videos.
Madroñal has not yet provided a response in court, although he justified his activities in a message to YouTube before the court process was initiated. The man has requested YouTube to restore the 10 films that were taken from his YouTube page, claiming that he had the right to publish them.
Bad Bunny and his legal team issued a “takedown notice” to YouTube, requesting the removal of the 10 specified videos. YouTube removed the videos, but Madroñal contested the decision and requested their reinstatement. YouTube informed Bad Bunny’s agents that the videos will be reposted unless the musician filed a lawsuit, which resulted in the legal action.