Last Monday The Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, The Doors and Santana filed a complaint in federal court in San Francisco against web site Wolfgang’s Vault to stop it from offering access to
a treasure trove of rock memorabilia and recordings.
The website’s owner, Bill Sagan, purchased the archives of the legendary concert promoter Bill Graham. The archives included vintage posters, tickets, audio and video recordings from Graham’s historic Fillmore concerts (which Graham owned), as well as live recordings of concerts which had gone
unheard for decades. The website offers these concerts as free streams, but does sell memorabilia.
Today Wolfgang bit back. "The lawsuit has nothing to do with artists’ rights and everything to do with others in the industry seeking to seize profits and shakedown Wolfgang’s Vault and its owner, Bill Sagan," said Wolfgang attorney Michael Elkin. "We believe while this lawsuit will attract a lot of headlines it has no basis or fact in law whatsoever. Wolfgang’s Vault bought all of this decades’ old material legally, paid their rightful owner and own all the rights necessary to conduct its business. We fully expect to be victorious in the court of law."
