Many performers have problems with vendors selling bootleg T-shirts and paraphernalia outside of their concerts but few have gone as far as Eric Church, who has filed a federal lawsuit in an attempt to prevent unlicensed retailers from going about their business outside his shows (from The Tennessean).
The lawsuit aims to get an injunction launched against the vendors, making it illegal for them to sell such shirts outside of concert venues. The act of selling cheap T-shirts and similar products outside of concerts is already illegal, on account of copyright protections for the performers' images and names as intellectual property, however those lawsuits are lengthy procedures. An injunction would simply make it illegal for non-licensed retailers to sell, straight-up. In short, a much easier arrest. Obviously he doesn't have a specific vendor in mind, so "John and Jane Doe" are listed as the defendants.
Few musicians in any genre are as active against outside vendors as Church. Last year he took on ticket scalpers, canceling upward of 1,000 tickets that resellers had bought with the intention of marking up prices. Church took the reclaimed tickets and sold them directly to fans at original face value.
"A lot of acts just want to sell as many tickets as they can, and they don't care who they sell them to," he said. "I want my fans to be the ones who buy tickets to my shows, and I want scalpers to back off. I can't stop ticket scalpers completely, but I can definitely make it harder for them."
Although that act was laudable for helping out his fans, don't make any mistake about his battles against bootleggers: Fans realize when they spend $5 for a shirt that they aren't getting an official piece of gear. This is all about Church defending his cash flow, and it's tough to disagree with him. One of the major reasons why music acts-even blockbuster album sellers such as Church-make most of their money on the road is because is because of the addition of merchandising revenue on top of ticket sales.
