Lawsuit: Bob Dylan Strikes Back at Bootleggers
Vancouver — Bob Dylan is suing a record pressing plant here for making and distributing the bootleg Great White Wonder LP which contains a number of unreleased Dylan cuts.
Asked whether they were in fact doing the bootlegging or had anything to say about the suit, a spokesman for the firm, International Corporation Ltd., said she “doesn’t have anything to say.” Neither did their attorneys.
Also named in the suit are Pat Allistair and Dub Taylor, who are said to have taken the album to International for copying. It is uncertain whether they are the same two men who were distributing the Great White Wonder in Los Angeles, prior to taking it on the lam to Canada, but probably so.
Some 10,000 copies of the double-record set were printed in Vancouver, and sold for prices from $6.95 to a top of $12. The album is a big underground item throughout the U.S.
Dylan is asking that they and the pressing plant be restrained from getting out any more albums — and also demands a full accounting of sales, plus any other master recordings they may control. The suit does not seem to involve damages or any share of the profits.
This story is from the December 27th, 1969 issue of Rolling Stone.