Wolfgang's Vault: Frivolous Lawsuit

Wolfgang's Vault: Frivolous Lawsuit

NEW YORK, Dec. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Last Monday, December 18, 2006, surviving members of the Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, The Doors and Santana filed a complaint in federal court in San Francisco against Wolfgang's Vault, an independent, small Bay Area website to stop offering music fans access to a treasure trove of rock memorabilia and recordings.

The website, www.WolfgangsVault.com, launched three years ago after its owner, Bill Sagan, purchased the archives of the late, legendary concert promoter Bill Graham from Clear Channel Communications. (Wolfgang was Bill Graham's given name.) The archives included vintage posters, handbills, tickets, postcards, photography, audio and video recordings from Graham's historic Fillmore concerts (which he owned), as well as live recordings of those concerts (and others) which, until the website's launch, had gone unheard by music fans for decades. The website does not charge its visitors and offers concert recordings as free streams; various memorabilia are also available for sale.

"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 Michael Elkin, partner with the international law firm, Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP, representatives of Wolfgang's Vault in this suit.

"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."

"The industry is never happy when fans can get music for free. Yet millions of dollars were spent for Mr. Graham's archive, and that purchase price included not just the photography, posters and handbills but also the recordings, as invaluable and as irreplaceable as they all are. Furthermore the purchase allowed the company the rights to open the archive as they deemed fit. Wolfgang's Vault is determined that the vault remains open, and intends to do everything in its power to keep it that way," added Elkin.

ABOUT WOLFGANG'S VAULT:

Wolfgang's Vault was recently hailed by the Wall Street Journal as "the most important collection of rock memorabilia and recordings ever assembled in one business." At www.wolfgangsvault.com visitors can browse, find and purchase poster art, concert photos, concert tickets and other rock music memorabilia while they listen to rare, never-before-heard recordings of live concerts featuring Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen and many others. Wolfgang's Vault was founded in 2003 with the acquisition of the personal archive of legendary promoter Bill Graham and is housed in a 20,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility in San Francisco.

CONTACT:
Ronn Torossian / 5W Public Relations
ronn@5wpr.com / 212.999.5585

Alyssa Miller / 5W Public Relations
amiller@5wpr.com / 212.584.4290

Source: Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP

CONTACT: Ronn Torossian, ronn@5wpr.com, +1-212-999-5585, or Alyssa
Miller, amiller@5wpr.com, +1-212-584-4290, both of 5W Public Relations

Web site: http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/

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