Destiny’s Child Combats Bootleg Shirts

Destiny’s Child, the pop group known for “Bootylicious” and “Survivor,” is singing another song--”No, No, No”--to T-shirt bootleggers.

Singers Beyonce Knowles, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams and their merchandiser, Bravado International Group Merchandising, are among the latest entertainers to get a court order to combat the sale of counterfeit T-shirts outside their concerts. Such orders let a group’s representatives seize bootleg merchandise being sold without the group’s permission.

Because musicians own their own trademarks, the burden is on them, not record companies, to use the courts to guard against misuse of their name or likeness. The battle has been going on for decades, long before musicians had to worry about Napster and free downloads of songs over the Internet.