Aerosmith's Tyler sues over blog impersonations
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler on Wednesday sued unknown bloggers who the singer said impersonated him on the Web, writing about the death of his mother and other "intimate details" from his life.
In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, Tyler, 60, said he didn't know the real names of those who have impersonated him and girlfriend Erin Brady on the Web, but he believes the same group was responsible for similar postings in 2007.
At that time, Tyler asked Google to remove the blogs, and the Internet company complied.
The latest batch of impersonator blogs, which show pictures of Tyler, the lead singer for the rock group Aerosmith, were posted at Blogspot.com, the lawsuit said. One posting had 31 entries for 2008, and another written by "Brady" had seven entries in recent months, the lawsuit said.
"The impersonated statements relating to (Tyler's) mother are perhaps most hurtful given that she recently passed away," the lawsuit stated.
Tyler's lawsuit accuses the bloggers of public disclosure of private facts, making false statements and misappropriation of likeness. It also seeks an injunction to have the defendants stop impersonating him online or elsewhere.
On Wednesday, the blogs Tyler's lawsuit describes as being written by impostors were unavailable for public viewing. A statement on each of the blog pages said, "This blog is under review due to possible blogger terms of service violations."
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
