Bad Bunny Sues Fan Who Uploaded Concert Footage to YouTube

Since debuting on the music scene in 2016, Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, has risen to heights of fame that other Latin artists have yet to achieve. In addition to hundreds of accolades and awards and achieving recognition even in the fashion world as one of the co-chairs at this year’s Met Gala, he has released five albums including his most recent Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana. To promote the album, he kicked off his The Most Wanted Tour to promote the album at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 21. But now, Bad Bunny has found himself embroiled in a legal battle with a fan, Eric Guillermo Madroñal Garrone, who filmed and uploaded videos of ten songs that Bad Bunny performed at the concert without permission to his Spain-based YouTube channel MADforliveMUSIC. Bad Bunny requested for the videos to be taken down but Madroñal Garrone swiftly protested the removal, claiming fair use. Days later on March 8, Bad Bunny filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the fan and is seeking up to $150,000 in damages for each of the ten songs, Billboard reported.

“I have been aware of the case only through articles in the press and videos on various social networks, despite the fact that my legal advisors are already working on the case,” Madroñal Garrone told NBC News Latino.

While this is Bad Bunny’s first copyright infringement case and one of the few to be filed in the history of the music industry, he has had many instances of refusing to be filmed. Last year, he took a selfie with a fan in the Dominican Republic, only to allegedly grab the phone and throw it into a pile of bushes. While the phone was unharmed and Bad Bunny later defended himself, citing privacy concerns, the video of the interaction went viral. In this situation, he might actually have a case for copyright infringement because the videos contained audio of full songs from his set, as opposed to short-form videos like TikToks where only small clips of songs and performances are shared and circulated. In those cases, videos like that are even welcomed by artists because they help create buzz surrounding their concerts and increase ticket sales without having to spend their own money on marketing. With this lawsuit, Madroñal Garrone’s videos could be considered “unauthorized bootleg” footage, though his fair use claim is calling them videos of a “newsworthy event of high public interest,” according to evidence from Bad Bunny’s attorneys.

As of this week, MADforliveMUSIC has been suspended from YouTube after a series of other copyright infringement claims, though they were unrelated to Bad Bunny, according to a YouTube spokesperson who spoke to NBC News. Their pages on TikTok and Instagram are still operating.

In light of the case, Bad Bunny is continuing to perform The Most Wanted Tour across the U.S. throughout 2024. He will next perform in Denver, Colorado beginning March 20, 2024.