Rock ‘N Roll Treasure Trove Prompt Artists’ Lawsuit

A treasure trove of rock ‘n roll posters, tapes and memorabilia of the Grateful Dead, the Doors, Santana and Led Zeppelin that are for sale on wolfgangsvault.com has become the focus of a copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit. The materials were part of the estate of rock concert promoter Bill Graham who operated the renowned venue “The Fillmore.”

“A notorious pack rat, Graham left behind a vast collection of promotional materials and swag in BGP’s warehouse, including millions of concert posters, T-shirts, photographs and miscellaneous memorabilia which he amassed during his thirty-year career as a concert promoter,” the complaint states. “Graham also left behind thousands of tapes of live concert performances by the artists he promoted, including audio and video recordings of Plaintiffs’ concerts. Graham never transmitted these performances to the public or sold these recordings, nor did he have the artists’ permission to do so.”

After his death, his estate sold the warehouse full of the memorabilia. Eventually the collection was acquired by William Sagan, who now is selling the material on his website wolfgangsvault.com. Members of the Grateful Dead, the Doors, Santana and Led Zeppelin claim that the sale of the materials violates their trademarks and the U.S. Copyright Act since they never authorized the sale of the material. They allege that many of the tapes are bootlegged copies.

In addition, they claim that the defendants are copying and streaming the groups’ live concert performances to the public. The plaintiffs state that while they granted a license to Graham “for the limited purpose of creating promotional items and giveaways” for the original concerts, they did not grant a license for the materials to be sold or otherwise displayed to the public.

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco federal court, seeks to enjoin the sales and asks that the defendants give them any profits from the sales.

Grateful Dead Productions et al. v. William E. Sagan et al., U.S. Dist. Court, San Francisco, filed December 18, 2006.