COLUMBIA, S.C. - Bill Pinkney wants people to know what they are seeing when they pay to watch the Drifters.

So the original Drifter is thrilled with a new law that allows performers or bands to claim an affiliation with a classic group like the Drifters or the Coasters only if at least one member recorded with the original group.

"People, they don't know who they're going to see," Pinkney says, adding that four or five bands can be touring as the Drifters at any one time. "They've been so brainwashed, so misled. Now you see the name the Drifters, and it stinks."

Gov. Mark Sanford signed the legislation Monday.

"Thank God for the Legislature. They're passing a law that's going to mean no more bogus groups playing the state of South Carolina," said Pinkney, the 78-year-old Sumter native, who co-founded the legendary group in 1953 and is the only original member still alive.

The law also protects groups by requiring performers or bands that don't have an original member to label live performances as a "tribute" or "salute."

The law will be celebrated at the fourth annual Beach Music Day on Tuesday on the Statehouse steps.

The law would not affect defunct groups whose members are touring separately, or so-called ghost bands, such as the Tommy Dorsey Band or Elvis impersonators.

"That's the answer there. They aren't saying they're Elvis," said Kelley Jones, a Columbia lawyer who lobbied for the bill. "They're doing an impersonation of Elvis."

Myrtle beach music promoter Skipper "Water Dog" Hough said groups that have won trademark rights to a name should not be required to include a disclaimer that the group has no original members.

"They are leaving themselves wide open for lawsuits," Hough said. "Several groups have members that have been with them for 25 to 35 years that weren't original, but who knows the difference? They have rights to the group names, and they've earned that right."

The law is the first of its type in the nation. The Recording Industry Association of America helped write the law, which it hopes to bring to the rest of the nation.

Doug Baker, president of the state division of East Coast Entertainment, said the law could stop problems he has run into trying to book Pinkney and others.

"The problem that you run into is some of the same buyers, three or four months prior, have booked another band calling themselves the Drifters," Baker said. "Therefore it directly affects us, it directly affects Bill."

Some beach music fans say copycat bands keep the old favorites alive and it's often easy to tell whether a band is composed of original members just by estimating performers' ages.

"We don't like to call it copycat," said Karen Callahan of Beckley, W.Va, who was in North Myrtle Beach for an annual festival for shag dancers. "We like to call it reliving the past."