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Twenty One Pilots sues “John Does” to block T-shirt sales at Saturday concert
By Kayla Canne on Fri, 09/11/2015 - 4:30pm
Sellers of unauthorized merchandise at tomorrow’s Twenty One Pilots concert at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion can expect to have their products seized by police, in line with a court order issued yesterday.
The recording company for the American hip hop group filed a lawsuit against “John Does 1-100, Jane Does 1-100 and XYZ Company,” claiming that the sale of inauthentic merchandise that carries the group’s trademarked name and images causes injury to the band’s reputation.
The complaint states that these individuals are sued “under fictitious names because their true names and capacities are unknown at this time.”
Under trademark infringement and violations of the Lanham Act, the group argued that the distribution of unauthorized merchandise causes confusion among purchasers and is often of inferior quality, damaging the band’s reputation for high quality goods.
A judge in US District Court in Boston yesterday agreed to issue a temporary restraining order restricting the sale of illegal merchandise with any or all of the group’s trademarks within a 10 mile radius of the group’s performance. The restraining order starts six hours before the show and will remain in place until six hours after the show ends. During this time, a seizure order is also in place, authorizing police to confiscate any illegal merchandise they see.
Defendants have a chance to respond and show cause to why these rights should not be granted to the group on Sept. 16 at 3 p.m. in Courtroom 12.
Twenty One Pilots, which consists of members Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun from Columbus, Ohio, is well-known throughout the United States and has sold over 20 million units of recording since their formation in 2009. The band will be performing at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion on Saturday evening.
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Comments
glad to see our cops have so much free time
....that they can play private police force to media companies.
Guess all the violent criminals with arrest warrants have been tracked down?
Guess all the drunk drivers are off the roads?
Guess everyone's following the traffic laws, and we don't have hundreds of pedestrians injured each year?
Guess we've caught all the criminals breaking into people's homes while they're at work?
Guess we no longer have one of the lowest homicide clearance rates in the country?
Who is "we" in your
Who is "we" in your rhetorical questions? You're not a cop. If you're so upset, sign up.
Then track down every single murderer and try to get them convicted with absolute zero witness cooperation. Unless you are just tough behind the keyboard.
Tonight on False Dichotomy Theater...
... We pretend that when laws we don't like are enforced, it means every other law is ignored!
... We imagine that on-duty homicide detectives get pulled off of cases to work a detail at the Pavilion!
...We pretend that all musicians are millionaires, and therefore are allowed to be ripped off!
So get ready to clutch your pearls and gasp in phony indignation at tonight's episode of False Dichotomy Theater!
BPD not worried about 21 pilots
I don't think they will send the whole force to roundup some bootleg t-shirt salespeople. I'm sure they will protect the city, serve warrants and catch drunk drivers( if they crash) as they do every night.
who the hell is 21 pilots?
Your solution is right here
"Defendants have a chance to respond and show cause to why these rights should not be granted to the group on Sept. 16 at 3 p.m. in Courtroom 12."
Instead of whining on the internet why don't you go to court and plead your case? Stop being a keyboard warrior and become an anon of action!
"Licensed Merchandise"
One of the biggest SCAMS going. But let's continue to feed the greedy profit machine that is merchandising, instead of giving consumers actual choices.
And it's totally unacceptable that public resources are being wasted to enforce something that doesn't harm ANYBODY, apart from corporate executives who already make way too much money off of bonehead regulations and practices like "official merchandise."
Ridiculous
Copyright and trademark laws are a scam?
Just like all the other inconvenient stuff in the US Constitution, I suppose.
I can't decide if you need a tinfoil hat or really are just ignorant.
Copyright and trademark laws are a TOTAL scam
Just because these Twenty-one Pilots people created music and logos, why should they be the only ones to make money from them.
It's just like patents. Just because I lack the vision to create things, why shoudn't I be able to manufacture and sell the inventions.
Seriously, though, who the heck are Twenty-one Pilots?
Thanks Waquiot
I had to ask myself the same question.. who the hell are they?
Eminem meets Ween?
Columbus Ohio used to have interesting bands in the 80s.
https://youtu.be/pXRviuL6vMY is an example of the shtick.
Scrawl was one of the more interesting bands from the earlier era.
https://youtu.be/gp5ujt7rOZc
The Afghan Whigs was another. https://youtu.be/C26BI1kJdkk
Going further back you have David Thomas and Pere Ubu.
Here's a track from when Peter Laughner was alive in 76.
https://youtu.be/VelS-YCtHV4
A woman from Columbus brought that single and others to Boston back then when she went to MIT and they became quite influential here. Mission of Burma was a huge fan.
The merch concept seems to be a mid period indie rock thing. John Felice and the Real Kids, the 2x4's and many others didn't bother with that shit.
Dreese and Newbury Comix were proto merch. When I booked the Middle East in 90, the merch table floggers were mainly from out of town. It probably augmented the crap money they got on the road.
Per Ubu was from Cleveland.
Brain fog got the best of me.
I agree. And while we're at
I agree. And while we're at it, let's ban NEEDING TICKETS to get into things like concerts. The only people those benefit are the GREEDY bands that make too much money as it is. What a SCAM.
Well, to add to the thing:
21 guy, explaining the band's logo, which looks vaguely like a wall outlet, only bent,"It means Twenty One Pilots, the logo does. Why it means Twenty One Pilots, is it really goes along with one of our songs called "Kitchen Sink." The whole concept of that song is that I feel that humans are always struggling all the time when it comes to purpose, trying to figure out their purpose is, what purpose even is, what's the point, justifying your own existence. A lot of kids and people my age struggle with "what's the point," and with the logo, what it really means is it's an encouragement. When someone asks me what the logo means to me, the logo means something to me because I made it mean something to me. That's the point. The point is that I created something that only I understand and whether or not I decide to disclose the meaning of it, that's the beginning of purpose for me. The meaning of purpose for me, is by creating something, if it be by writing lyrics, painting a picture, by expressing yourself through art if it's photography or music or theater, or whatever it is. It doesn't have to be artistic, but if you create something and only you know the meaning of it, that's the beginning of purpose for you. When you're in the room by yourself trying to decide whether to stay alive, you can tell yourself "I should probably stay alive because I'm the only one who knows the meaning of that thing," so the logo is an encouragement for people to create. That's what it means."
—Tyler Joseph explaining the band's logo.
I wish to remain anonymous...
Well, to add to the thing:
21 guy, explaining the band's logo, which looks vaguely like a wall outlet, only bent,"It means Twenty One Pilots, the logo does. Why it means Twenty One Pilots, is it really goes along with one of our songs called "Kitchen Sink." The whole concept of that song is that I feel that humans are always struggling all the time when it comes to purpose, trying to figure out their purpose is, what purpose even is, what's the point, justifying your own existence. A lot of kids and people my age struggle with "what's the point," and with the logo, what it really means is it's an encouragement. When someone asks me what the logo means to me, the logo means something to me because I made it mean something to me. That's the point. The point is that I created something that only I understand and whether or not I decide to disclose the meaning of it, that's the beginning of purpose for me. The meaning of purpose for me, is by creating something, if it be by writing lyrics, painting a picture, by expressing yourself through art if it's photography or music or theater, or whatever it is. It doesn't have to be artistic, but if you create something and only you know the meaning of it, that's the beginning of purpose for you. When you're in the room by yourself trying to decide whether to stay alive, you can tell yourself "I should probably stay alive because I'm the only one who knows the meaning of that thing," so the logo is an encouragement for people to create. That's what it means."
—Tyler Joseph explaining the band's logo.
I wish to remain anonymous...
Aren't all the bands on
Aren't all the bands on Atlantic records' Fueled by Ramen label fake indie bands created by Atlantic?
This order seems like some
This order seems like some sort of weird judicial entrapment. Charge John Does to not sell counterfeit merchandise, then invite them to challenge the order? Wouldn't they have to prove that they're one of the John Does named in the order to have standing to challenge it? Isn't this some sort of perverse fifth amendment violation?
Lol
How big of a shitlord do you have to be to be upset that a band might want to sell their own merchandise instead of being undercut by people selling fakes
Yes, how dare an entity want to profit off of their own identity.