On Wednesday (Sept. 6), TMZ released details from court documents acquired by The Blast that show Ye (formerly Kanye West) refuses to back down from fighting anonymous music leakers on social sites.
According to reports, Ye discovered that IG user DaUnreleasedGod somehow obtained unreleased copies of his music and then allegedly published them on the popular social networking site and Twitter. He decided to use a lawsuit to attempt to reveal the identity of the user. Ye argued that it must be someone who previously worked for him. If so, they signed a confidentiality agreement, which they violated via the leaks.
According to the hip hop veteran, the user “knowingly and unlawfully acquired, disclosed, and distributed Ye’s trade secrets, the proprietary musical compositions, violating their legal and ethical obligations.” As also cited in court documents, DaUnreleasedGod allegedly leaked unreleased music by many other unnamed artists.
Ye claimed that distribution of his art resulted in “substantial harm” to his “work, reputation, and potential income,” and that he “suffered significant financial losses and damages.” Since March 2023, DaUnreleasedGod has reportedly leaked 21 separate pieces of unpublished music from Ye’s “Listed Compositions,” including tracks for Donda and Jesus Is King.
As for the claim that DaUnreleasedGod exposed a trade secret, the lawsuit stated, “Ye’s musical composition, with its distinctive arrangement and unique elements, constitutes a trade secret due to its economic value, secrecy, and the efforts taken to safeguard it.”
The Chicago icon demanded not only attorney fees and associated costs but also a permanent injunction and any other court-directed relief, including “enjoining and restraining defendants and their agents, servants, employees, representatives, affiliated companies and other business entities, successors, assigns, and those acting in concert with them or at their direction from further misappropriation, disclosure or unlawful use of the trade secret or confidential information in any manner or any right in and to the ‘Listed Compositions,’ including without limitation by directly or indirectly reproducing, downloading, distributing, communicating to the public, uploading, linking to, transmitting, publicly performing, or otherwise exploiting in any manner the ‘Listed Compositions.'”