The T-shirt is dead, long live the T-shirt!

[Darren]

I have just read an email from slipstream merchandise about offering for sale unofficial merchandise of The Courteeners!

I can't believe it! They are saying I have 7 days to remove the t-shirts from sale or they will start legal proceedings!!

S&C is a community that are helping to promote the band, can't they see this isn't a profit making scheme! We post everything possible about official merchandise for sale and freely promote their stuff.

I'm doing this for the love of the band and the community we have built, not to line my pockets, why on earth would I spent so much time making this the place for all the fans of The Courteeners?

I'll tell you! I wanted to create t-shirt for our own community which isn't available to the general pubic but not only that, what about the flyers, this costs me money to make but never bothers me! I want to help the band as well as the forum members

I've loved doing everything, from trying to make us a dot com to the many hours of looking for information to improve the forum content, then starting a forum fund for future projects, the list could go on and on...

Maybe all the work and effort could be a stepping stone to a new job later on, why not if I enjoy doing this?

We all wanted it and it has been discussed for a while now, from the ideas through to the design images and pre-order thread offering the t-shirt before I created the catalogue.

The band's management obviously are watching the forum because of the PM's & emails I have previously received concerning various posts.
So why on earth haven't they said anything about the t-shirt???

All I can do really is remove the catalogue temporarily and give the members who have paid for their pre-orders a refund

I'm really sorry this has happened and maybe looking at it now I should have researched the legal side but who would really have they would be concerned about 'what is' The Courteeners forum (where is the bands official forum?) producing a t-shirt for loyal fans?

You look at all the dodgy one's being sold on ebay recently! They were blatantly ripped off the album cover

I did everything possible not to use any of their designs, the logo is a font so surely I can use a font available to the world! Maybe they are jealous of the communities originality.

---

Again, sorry about this but what can I do?

Maybe we should bombard the management with emails or start a campaign to give us our t-shirt back!

I will post the email they sent me right away, I won't give out their email address though, I can see them taking legal action for giving out their 'personal' information

Please give your response to this really terrible news!

[Darren]

Dear Sirs

It has been brought to our attention that you are currently offering for sale unofficial merchandise of The Courteeners on your Snorting & Cavorting website, thecourteeners.proboards78.com

Such action infringes the rights of both The Courteeners, and ourselves, who have recently concluded an exclusive licence agreement with the band to manufacture and sell their merchandise. We would kindly request that you immediately withdraw any items on offer for sale that bear either the name or imagery of The Courteeners and cease any further manufacture of such items.

If you do not acknowledge this demand within 7 days and/or continue to offer such items for sale we will have no hesitation to instigate formal legal proceedings in order to protect our rights.

Yours sincerely

*************

*************

[Darren]

For the members who have already paid through Paypal.

I have now completed a bank transfer to paypal which will take 7-9 days, I'll immediately issue your refunds as soon as it's back in my paypal account.

I had only just transfered it last week so I could get ready to pay for the t-shirt printing

[Darren]

I have also sent an email to the printers to apologise for wasting their time

I also asked them if they could still do the printing if I manage to get any joy from the email I sent to the merchandisers.

Basically I asked them if there is any way the forum could still have it's own t-shirt

[cal]

a forum tshirt should be ok.

the management and that are obviously on the forum loads and since were basically sticking to what they say, i think we should be linked on the main courteeners site.

[frankiewno1]

Thats seems pretty over the top to be honest
There is nothing on the t-shirts that makes them an alternative to the band's official stuff and they say all over them they are the forum!
We'll just have to wait and see what they say about it

[Fergal]

I'm very sorry, you must be fair gutted about that as well as I am.
Is there not any way you can do it underhandedly? Like just say that you've remove the t shirt off the forum etc but sell it us secretly, i dunno, its hard to articulate what it is that i mean
No hard feelings though like, it aint your fault

[Darren]

Cal - I totally agree that we should be linked with the band officially, is there anything you can do with your links to the band?

frankie - Yeah we will have to wait for their response, I hope I haven't ruined our chances, I have done everything that is required from their email but maybe I should have taken your advice a while ago in the t-shirt project thread when you mentioned legal stuff

fergal - I'm totally gutted for everyone mate! I know what your trying to say about underhand sales but I don't want to do anything illegal

[mc18988]

This should be the OFFICIAL FORUM and it's got to happen eventually, then we'll get some joy

Good luck with everything Darren

[cal]

Daz, i havent really got "links" to the band really, just that theyre aware of who i am and all that. i think you should send a PM to that Dave from the management and see what he thinks.

[Darren]

Oh well Cal just a thought.

I have tried to contact Dave a number of times about various subjects but he hasn't replied

I've sent them to his email address and PM'd his UN in here, I'll try sending one to the Northern Ambition myspace and see if I get anywhere

[amber]

What a shame! I'm sorry mate..
Can't you try and send a message to the band directly? I don't think they've got a problem with the t-shirt thing. And I guess they are not even aware of what's going on here...

[Cardinals of Langley]

Chances are that theres nothing that the band themselves can do if they, or more likely their management, have signed a contract giving exclusive rights to sell merchandising etc with this Slipstream company.

The company who has got the license/rights will not want other stuff on being sold by other parties for 2 main reasons - that people may associate merchandising with them that they are not responsible for producing, and, the fact that they have paid a lot of money for EXCLUSIVE licensing rights.

So really it makes no difference to them if you are making a 100% mark-up profit or selling them at a loss... or if the t-shirts are the greatest designed and made garments ever known to man, or snide tatty rags that fall to pieces after one wash...

Harsh but reality...

PS. Darren you have PM...

[upton]

I can't see this being the bands decision myself.

[kokainekinney]

get an email sent to the bands email address, im not sure whether they still go on it, but its worth a shot. pm liam on myspace, im sure he would take the time to read something about this forum, cus he has got to keep us lot sweet

someone needs to give him a letter of some kind at these instore signings, or approach him on the matter. cus the band wont be losing money cus of these shirts, id still buy an official shirt aswell as the forum shirt.