Business Notes Counterfeits

The spirit of generosity that pervades the No. 1 hit song We Are the World has failed to inspire at least one part of society: the pirates who manufacture counterfeit merchandise. The USA for Africa project, in which 46 rock stars donated their services to help finance a famine relief fund, has sued six manufacturers and retailers who have allegedly earned as much as $2 million from selling fake souvenir T shirts and sweatshirts. "They're contemptible, with no morals whatsoever," declared Jay Cooper, USA for Africa's principal lawyer. "They're taking money from the people of Africa." Last week a federal judge in Los Angeles issued an order forcing several Southern California store owners to stop selling the bogus merchandise.

The USA project hopes to raise a total of as much as $100 million, with at least $15 million coming from the sale of souvenir shirts. The fake merchandise has turned up in cities all across the U.S. Some of the bogus shirts can easily be spotted because a wheat-stalk symbol appears in the first letter of the word Africa instead of the last one. In many cases, the offending merchants have been turned in by consumers. Says Cooper: "People are absolutely outraged at this thing."