Grateful Dead Music Forum

That article on the front page here is definately incorrect in that it states "... didn't the world's greatest (remember, these things are relative) jam band exist in some sort of harmony with the strange army of merchants who sold bootlegs and other Grateful Dead apparel in the parking lots outside their gigs?"
Fact is, by the mid 80s the Grateful Dead were confiscating unauthorized merchandise in the parking lots, and bringing lawsuites againt bootleggers selling their shows.
IMHO, Stealing is stealing, and both bands ought to continue to go after these people.

I'm no expert but I'm thinking the GD allowed taping and trading of the tapes but not selling of the tapes.

I'm no expert but I'm thinking the GD allowed taping and trading of the tapes but not selling of the tapes.

You're correct. But that article more than implies that the Dead allow selling of anything, which is completely false.

The article is rather vague, imho. Are they going to go around the lot arresting anyone selling anything or are they only going to arrest people who are selling anything with "Phish" on it? Is a tie-dye with a small phish on the sleeve getting someone busted, but you can sell all the grilled cheese sandwiches you want? The Dead were similar in that if you were selling anything with their logo, they wanted it stopped. You could sell tie-dye's, food, beer, etc., but if you did skull/roses, skull/lightning bolt, etc., they took stuff from you and/or had you busted. And some places were more strict than others.

From what I understand, Phish is only concerned with people selling stuff with their logos/trademarks--not grilled cheese. Same as the GD did.