Bootleggers threaten Dirty Coast's "secret handshake" for New Orleanians
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Internet bootleggers have Dirty Coast owner Blake Haney "between a rock and a hard place" as he weighs how much money to spend going after them, he tells Axios.
Why it matters: Direct-to-garment printing is making copyright infringement more of a problem for Haney's popular and funny New Orleans T-shirt shop and others.
The big picture: Dirty Coast started in 2004 and ramped up after Hurricane Katrina as the city "rallied around shared symbols and a renewed sense of pride," the company's bio says.
- "From the very beginning, we've wanted to create designs that are a secret handshake for people who have a relationship with this area," Haney tells Axios.
- The "Be a New Orleanian. Wherever you are." is the one that took off after Katrina.
- Dirty Coast has 400+ designs celebrating and poking fun at the culture, neighborhoods, food, potholes and other challenges about living in New Orleans.
Yes, but: Those designs are getting ripped off more in recent years as direct-to-garment printing improved, Haney said.
How it works: The internet thieves screenshot the designs from Dirty Coast's website, crop them and put them in software to try and increase the resolution, he said.
- Then, they sell the shirts on their own sites, and the merch is printed when customers place orders.
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Case in point: NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick wore a shirt to the city's Pride parade that parodied her comments about rats eating marijuana in NOPD's evidence room.
- Her claim inspired a sold-out Dirty Coast shirt riffing on Looney Tunes with a high rat and the words "They're all high."
Yes, but: Haney says her shirt was a bootleg version of Dirty Coast's design, and she got snookered by a company masquerading as the real thing.
- "It's no fault of her own," he said, adding that the NOLA rats shirt is one of Dirty Coast's most stolen designs to date.
- Kirkpatrick told Axios that she went to a Dirty Coast store to buy the shirt but it wasn't available, and staff redirected her to the store's website. But she must've gone to a bootleg site inadvertently.
What they're saying: "We just have to keep sending emails and cease and desist orders" to the sites with the stolen designs, Haney said.
- The next step would be suing, he said, but he has to weigh the benefit against the $50,000 or so in legal fees. "Is it worth it go to go court for a T-shirt?"
The other side: Brands also are trying to protect their intellectual property.
- Haney has had run-ins with Jazz Fest and Tabasco, and Defend New Orleans and Fleurty Girl have had legal battles with the NFL over the fleur de lis and "Who Dat" on shirts.
What's next: Haney thinks the copyright problems will probably get worse as AI improves.
- But, for now, the computers have a hard time coming up with inside jokes.