A woman sued by Eric Clapton after listing a bootleg CD for €9.95 on eBay now has to pay his legal fees
The woman attempted to sell a CD bought by her late husband in 1987, but could face jail time if she tries to do so again.
Image: John Phillips / BFC / Getty
A German woman who listed a bootleg Eric Clapton CD for sale on eBay for less than €10 must pay for his legal fees after he successfully sued her for trying to sell the recording.
The CD was bought by the woman’s husband in 1987s. After her husband ’s death, the woman listed the CD for sale on eBay. Clapton sent Düsseldorf regional court an affidavit saying that the recordings were illegal, leading to the court’s initial decision in favour of Clapton. This was appealed against by the woman, however, yesterday (15 December) the court rejected the appeal.
According to the German newspaper Bild, the judge ruled that it was irrelevant that she did not know she was infringing copyright and did not purchase the CD herself. The court has now asked the woman to pay the legal fees of both parties, totalling around €3,400.
If she continues to offer the CD for sale she faces a fine of €250,000 or six months in prison. The woman’s lawyer, Klaus Günther, told Bild: “We will appeal again.”
Eric Clapton is one of the wealthiest musicians in the world, with a net worth of around $300 million. As well as clearly being passionate about copyright law – enough to take a 55-year-old German woman to court – he has recently been advocating for vaccine hesitancy, occasionally spreading misinformation as he does so.
He also claimed that his reaction to the vaccine almost robbed him of his ability to play guitar, and that lockdowns stopped him from being able to make money from his music. His latest record, The Lady In The Balcony: Lockdown Sessions, on which he plays guitar, was recorded during the pandemic.