When a German woman listed an Eric Clapton CD on eBay over the summer, she thought the rock music purchased by her late husband decades earlier could fetch her around $11 in the online marketplace if she was lucky.

Instead, it somehow got the attention of Clapton, who sued the woman for copyright infringement and accused her of selling a bootleg CD of one of his live shows from the 1980s. Now, the 55-year-old widow, who did not sell the CD and claimed she did not know it was a bootleg, owes thousands of dollars in court fees.

A German judge on Wednesday sided with Clapton in his lawsuit, ordering that the woman known only as “Gabriele P.” pay nearly $4,000 in court costs for copyright infringement, according to the German news outlet DW.

The woman, who lives in Ratingen, a small German town about an hour outside Cologne, claimed her late husband bought the CD, “Eric Clapton – Live USA,” at a department store in 1987, DW reported. She told the court she did not know she was infringing copyright when she listed the bootleg recording of one of Clapton’s concerts on eBay for 9.95 euros, or about $11.20. The CD was listed for one day before it was removed.

But a judge with the Düsseldorf regional court rejected the woman’s appeal this week, saying it did not matter that she did not purchase the CD or know it was an illegal recording, reported the German newspaper Bild.

The court also ruled that if she tried to sell the Clapton bootleg again, she could face up to six years in prison or a fine of nearly $282,000.


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