Kelsea Ballerini has reached a deal to end her lawsuit against a superfan she accused of leaking her unreleased album, agreeing to drop the case after the alleged hacker promised never to share the material again.
The ballerina sued Bo Ewing in April over allegations that she hacked her unfinished album and shared it with a fan club. The country star claimed that Ewing – allegedly a former fan who had become disillusioned with her – had obtained an illegal “backdoor” into the still-in-production song.
But Ewing's lawyers quickly promised to stop sharing her songs and name people to whom she had already sent them, suggesting he was not prepared to fight Ballerini's lawsuit. And in a Monday filing signed by both sides, Ewing agreed to be permanently barred from leaking the star's songs.
“Defendant is prohibited from knowingly or intentionally accessing any unreleased recordings, unreleased performances, unreleased videos, or any other unreleased content created by, believed to be created by, or otherwise associated with plaintiffs,” the two sides wrote in joint deposit. “Defendant is hereby granted further access to any of the recordings that are the subject of this litigation that Defendant has affirmatively stated are no longer in his possession.”
In exchange for such a deal, Ballerini asked the judge overseeing the case to dismiss her lawsuit outright. Any other specific terms of the settlement, including possible cash payments, were not disclosed in court filings. Neither side immediately returned requests for comment Tuesday.
Ballerini filed the case in April, claiming she was the victim of a “vicious digital attack” carried out by “unscrupulous attention-seekers”. The leak not only undermined the “most critical moment” for an album's commercial success, her lawyers said, but also robbed her of her artistic agency.
“Ms. Ballerini and her team are the only ones who can say when the recordings will be completed,” her lawyers wrote at the time. do not yet meet the plaintiffs' high professional standards'.
Almost immediately, however, Ewing agreed to play ball with Ballerini's lawyers. In a deposition days after his lawsuit, he agreed to be bound by a preliminary injunction requiring him to disclose who he had already shared it with and how he came into possession of her music.
“The defendant shall provide the plaintiffs with the names and contact information of all persons to whom the defendant distributed the recordings within thirty days of the entry of this order,” the agreement states. “Defendant will make every effort to disclose to Plaintiffs from whom and by what means it obtained the recordings.”
The names of any alleged accomplices were not disclosed in the court filings, and it is unclear whether Ballerini will take further legal action against anyone else who may have been involved in the alleged hacking.
