MovieExchange

Just got a call from a friend attending the Motor City Comic Con in Novi, Michigan today. Over the last several years, the convention has lessened the emphasis on comics and increased promotion of media personalities, and along with that came a slew of VHS and later DVD dealers, all packed with bootlegs of both current theatrical releases and TV shows / movies that aren't available on DVD legally.

My friend called me a few hours ago, and told me that the police raided the show, and all the dealers selling bootlegs were cuffed and lined up to be taken away.

Personally, I'm amazed this didn't happen sooner. There have been a large number of bootleg dealers at that convention for at least 10 years now.

rw2516

I'm also suprised it hasn't happened sooner. Don't know about now but it used to be illegal to sell movie posters. Posters were the property of Screen Service Corporation and were to be returned to them or destroyed by the theater after a movie closed. If not they were considered stolen property. I was at a comic show about 25 years ago and the FBI came in and confiscated all the posters from the dealers. Don't remember anyone getting arrested though.

milo bloom

Attention all murderers, rapists and drug dealers in Novi, MI: here's your chance!

Breakfast with Girls

Good.

Joe Molotov

About time they got those dangerous Star Was Holiday Special dealers off the street.

PixyJunket

Fucking awesome!

TomOpus

Last year at Comic-Con during Preview Night, I saw a large table loaded with boots. Next day the same table had another vendor selling authorized merchandise. I was all giggly that those asshats were shutdown fairly quickly.

Peep

I heard that bootleggers who sell out of print or unreleased titles often reduce the chances of offical releases by softening the market.

Maybe that a misperception, but who is going to buy the rights to a title if they think it's readily available as a bootleg?

MovieExchange

Yeah, but the return argument is that many of the times these items are bootlegged when it seems that there is no hope of them ever being out legally. For example, the Adam West Batman series. DC Comics has pretty much said that there is no way in hell this is coming out. So to be honest, I have to problem buying a bootleg of it. Of course, I'm also in the minority of people that would buy a legal release when it came out even though I had a boot.

Misery

What a shame.All the bootleggers will have to go back to Ebay to sell thier junk.

digitalfreaknyc

zombiezilla

MovieExchange, I agree with you. If USA distributors/studios will not release certain films I want in R1 (see my user name for a hint at what film series I'm mainly referring to), I'll buy a pirated copy easily, especially if I cannot get the alternate region release, or if there isn't one. Of course, as you said, I would also buy the legit version should it ever become available.
EXAMPLE: I want a movie I'll refer to as "G1985" on legit DVD, but it's not out in America, only Europe and Asia. I found a guy (on eBay, natch) who had a FOUR DISC SET for sale. It came with the widescreen original language version with (removeable) English subs; the Widescreen English international version (although in English, unseen in the USA); and the USA version, in English and fullscreen (shudder). The 4th disc was all the extras from the damn LASERDISC! It was such a good and perfect collection, the likes of which I would make for myself, if I had the equipment/access to the discs. But I do not, so I bought it directly from him at a lesser price than what the auction commanded. I cut out the man (eBay) and got it for less $$$, to boot!
Were ANY of the versions in my current set released in the USA, I'd buy them. Even if they were no better than this pirate copy.

And, NOOOO I am not selling, trading, or swapping DVDs here. Just making a statement.

And, some of you may remember that I used to live in Michigan....I always attended this show, both the late spring/early summer and the autumn shows. And I always walked away with a bag of DVDs....several of which eventually got replaced with the legit release, if they came out....but most did not.

............

The Video Dead

If i got a chance to pickup some old tv shows that will never get a release date.....


ala Salute your shorts, Doug, My Brother and Me, Martin, Wonder Years, You Can't Do That On Television, Ahhh Real Monsters etc.


I think these places need to really get on the ball with releasing old tv shows that alot of fans want.

MasterCXtreme

Michigan cops are dicks. And that's no threadcrap people, that's a fact.

zombiezilla

MasterCXtreme, you got that right, for sure!

Lastdaysofrain

What a collosall waste of man power and tax dollars. I honestly see nothing wrong with selling bootlegs of things that aren't commercially available. I think it's lame to sell bootlegs of films in theatres, but stuff that's rare or hard to find? Who cares.

This is a worse waste of manpower, tax dollars, and police than the war on drugs. Fight some legit crime people.

John Sinnott

"There are three types of people in the world: dicks, pussies and assholes."


Kudos to the cops too! I'm glad they are enforcing the laws instead of sitting at a donut shop.

Egon's Ghost

Even if something isn't on DVD, I just have a problem paying more than $.10 for a bootleg. How in the hell can a website like DVDavenue.tv exist? Everything there is a bootleg. Full series sets of The Addams Family. Um, yeah. $100 for something that was ripped from TV Land?! To quote James Caan, "f*ck you in your a$$hole!" Why aren't they raided?

So we shouldn't have intellectual property laws?

GIjon213

I, for one, am glad this happened. There are so many people I know who say that they collect DVD's. I then ask them what one's they have, do they have any limited editions, etc... And they then proudly tell me that all 300 DVD's they have are burned! And they think that they collect DVD's?! No, they don't collect DVD's, they steal them. It is like someone hoarding those gold chocolate coins and saying that they are a coin collector. I have only ever bought one bootleg DVD, and that was off Ebay by accident. But you know what? I learned so much about who and where to buy from, checking feedback, asking questions, etc... that that one bootleg purchase was worth the lessons learned. To all those who think that the cops are wasting their time, I think that they are doing their job.

TomOpus

You don't think it's wrong only because you don't own the rights to property that could be copied and sold.

MovieExchange

What about situations where the person that owns the rights apparently, for whatever reason, just doesn't want to make money off the property?

As I've mentioned before, the Batman TV series.

Or better yet, Tick: the Animated Series. Here we thought we were going to get a season set, and now we find out that the official release is going to be a "best of" collection instead. Or Song of the South, which keeps getting blocked by the politically correct police.

Don't get me wrong, I despise boots of things that we know will be coming out on DVD legally. As someone that sells DVD's for a living, nothing gets me more pissed than when a customer comes in and tells me they don't need to pay $10 for a previously viewed copy of King Kong because their friend burned it for them. But when it's something that will not see an official release for whatever reason? If I want to see it, I'll buy it.

wewantflair

It's still their firm right to withold their property from the public, even if the public wants it. We may not like it, but profiting from someone else's property, even if they choose not to, is wrong.

Dr. Henry Jones, Jr.

They are more than welcome to release it to everyone for free if they don't want to make money from it.

Reservoir

Send them to Guantanamo Bay.

Russell S

Cops raiding a comic book convention? Come on. I'm all for cracking down on current releases, copies of legit releases, etc, but stuff that may never get a release or cases where companies drag their feet, you'd better believe I'll pick up a bootleg. I've cherished my From Beyond and Dellamorte Dellamore boots for years. I may never have even seen these had I waited patiently on the official releases.