I onced asked a vendor at a convention how he could legally justify selling bootleg tapes of copyrighted shows. His explanation (and I'm not kidding): "I'm not selling the shows--I'm selling old video tapes that may just happen to have something recorded on them. I figure the customers will erase them when they get home." Of course they will. I always bought my "blank" tapes at conventions for $20 a pop, and then taped over whatever was on them. I wonder how many times he had to repeat that to himself before he began believing it.

Yes I have been to a convention. How else would I know the illegal activities of bootleg scalpers.

Big differnce is, the comic is a legal product. You can charge whatever you want to for it. Bootleg tapes aren't legal and the value of the material is only what the blank media is worth (around $3). I said you would pay the cost of a blank CD/VHS.

No convention openly allows bootleg tapes. Most turn a blink eye to it...as long as it isn't brought up. You can bet if the issue of bootlegs was brought up, they'd kick all the bootlegs out because they can be held legally responsible for allowing copywrite infringements to go on during their event.

Jackskeleton, the way you defend the bootleggers, I get the feeling that you are a dealer of them.

No they 'sneaky' ways people try to sell bootlegs doesn't make it legal either. None of the "Buy this video case for $15 & I'll throw in a video copy of Hulk outtakes free" tactics will work.

Well lets put it this way, the Conventions promoters will protect their venders because they paid the fee to get the table. so if you did pull a stunt like that don't think your a walking jesus. Chances are you will be kicked out at the very least and I would assume you would have to pay for it. the Convention promoters do higher there own security incase things break out. Now if you took it to higher court.

Now am I a bootlegger. Hell no. I have just grown up in the section of collecting and I have been to more conventions then you could possibily think of. I don't like bootleggers as much as the next guy, but I do realize that a bootlegger is part of the life blood that keeps conventions alive. As long as a convention has some life blood in it, I can find the harder to find rare items and imported material that is legit. Lets say a bootlegger has some imported toys or items from a series that is not so popular here. That's not his major profit maker, the bootlegs are. So if some other schmuck is a buying the bootlegs, it supports the guy enough to keep coming back with both the bootlegs as well as the Legit stuff that I buy.

Promoters see that bootlegs are sold, but they turn the blind eye on it because they realize that it is part of the reason why the convention is pulling in customers for the other sellers. Now the issue you were saying was that you could just destroy something from someone's booth and get away with it because the item was a bootleg. I'm telling you that the promoters of the convention see this as you just destroying something from there booth that wasn't yours. So of course this will get you in trouble Regardless of it being bootleg or not.

Now, if you brought a higher authority into the mix and reported the Promoters, then you will see a sort of "crack down" for a time being. The moment the convention is out of the spot light then the bootlegs will be back. Then again, they will still be selling them under the table in a way.

I'm not a dealer, I just reallize that Bootleggers are normal people who are selling both bootlegs aswell as legit items. I get my cookie once the bootlegs are sold to others because the prices on the goods I want are dropped down since the income is coming from those said bootlegs.

Then again, another reason why I don't buy bootlegs is because I can easily find them online. It would be like buying a Music CD at a convention when you can easily find the mp3's online. :p

I attend a monthly music convention every couple months at a local Holiday Inn.

75% of the stuff there is bootleg.

About 2 years ago there was a major police raid and the cops took everything. For the next year, the place was barren, just a handful of sellers.

But now that enough time has passed -- the boots are back and I most recently got a great DVD of a Guns N Roses show I attended in November.

Obviously they cracked down on the bootlegging at WizardWorld Chicago because most of the copyright holders of the materials were exhibitors at the convention. It's pretty stupid to be displaying the VCD boot of Spiderman down the aisle from the Marvel booth.

As one of the losers who exhibits at some of these shows (I moonlight as a clerk/manager/whatever of a local hobby store), I can tell you that these convention promoters turn a blind eye to bootleggers because it brings bodies into the convention. If you don't live in New York, LA, or one of the big metropolitan areas this kind of thing isn't readily available. So you get the anime fans by the droves looking for the most recent fansubs, and comic fans looking for the Fantastic Four film, or Star Wars fans looking for R0 copies of the original trilogy, and the "Phantom Edits". The con promoters don't see them as people, as much as $20 bills walking into the convention hall. And if allowing the bootleggers to hawk their ware brings in more twenties, they're willing to let it go.

The only problem I have is with the tape dealers that openly display hardcore pornograpy at their booths. I've even seen dealers playing the tapes on their sets. There are a lot of kids at these conventions, and while some of them are messed up already, I wouldn't want my younger brother/cousins/nephew seeing this.

I've only ever bought Miyazaki fansubs and Prisoner comps from these dealers, and I don't feel hypocritical as I'm usually the first in line to pick them up when legitimately released.

that reminds me...
 

Of a guy Jack and I once spoke to about a DVD box set. It was the Neon Genesis Evangalion box set. We asked the guy how much he wanted for it and he said 199...and it was 250 after taxes. We looked at each other and said "Well at Best Buy it isnt THAT much." His response was the norm "Then go there, I run a business and I have to charge tax." He proceeded to pull out some yellow papers, and give us a lecture about running a business. Ignoring the fact he was at a wherehouse full of venfors selling everything you'd find at cons. Taking a look around his booth he had bootleg DVDs of many different things. So I asked him "..do you charge less or no tax for your bootlegs?" He stammered saying what he had was legit....riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. So the rest of the day Jack and I kept running past him yelling "Oh s^&t! run!!! its the IRS!!!!"

:lol:

First off, there's a BIG difference (for me, anyhow) between people selling legitimately rare, absolutely OOP bootleg material (like KTMA Mystery Science Theater 3000 videos) and people selling pirated crap (3 disc Evangelion series sets, still in theater movies).

I have no problem with bootleggers when the material is extremely rare or in the case of music, fan recorded. My boots are mainly music related, and I've picked up some great camcorder concerts, including several shows I've been at. Are they as professional as a legitimate release, no, they're not even close, but they cover the entire event, as it happened, and give a unique perspective a highly edited live album or video would not show. No overdubs, no camera tricks, and no songs deleted. Somebody screws up the words or drops the mic, it's right there.

I do have a problem when any bootleg or pirate material is overpriced. These people don't have squat invested in these things. They're pure profit. Even $20 for a full concert is high in my book, and some of the prices I saw FOTR and TTT dvds go for on ebay were nothing short of obscene.

I think bootleg tapes are a big draw for most conventions and record shows, advertised or not. Hell, a local record show is cosponsored by a bootleg tape guy. I just hope the easy availability of DVD screeners, etc. doesn't end up killing them off completely.

The thing there is a few Unwritten rules to conventions:

First off No sales tax. To make it easier on the buyer and the vendor attempting to do the math on how much sales tax to charge, they just round it a buck or so higher or already price it with the sales tax included, if they are going to even charge sales tax (Cause come on, your not fooling me, those venders are not going to be reporting that certain sale)

Venders don't step on others toes. I've seen vendors go at it because one is muscling into their area of sales by selling film posters at a cheaper price. So Usually you will see in conventions their is only one big Porn guy, one big poster, one big Comic whole seller, one big importer, etc. etc. and you have the cast of regular other sellers who only cover a tiny bit of any of the said big fellas. It's sort of a circle of life. :p

Bootlegs are ignored till the Promoter gets the man on his back. Simple reasoning, the Promoter knows the bootlegs get you in and line his pockets full of your enterence fee. Not to mention that I have seen more promoters get the hook up by the bootleggers by them kicking him down a free copy of _____ film that is still fresh in theaters.

You can Haggle.. to a point. Simple reasoning, You can haggle with a price of something but you have to remember, they are there to make a profit and some items in demand are really sold as they are marked. Wait for the item's Off season to buy. I bet you can get a lot of sw toys really cheap right now. ;)

All sales should be final, if they are not stated so.. assume so. Just like they don't want to deal with Taxes, Vendors don't want to deal with returns so they typically don't accept them unless it's really there fault (Say the bootleg copy of TTT you just bought ends up being Jenna's greatest underaged hits) Also usually bootleggers will have a VCR playing some new bootleg. ask to have them test for quality, IF you are going to buy bootlegs.

rotfl

This month I was reminded that some of these people (booth sellers) are complete retards. There was this guy at yesterday's con selling a plastic Spider-Man mask, you know the kind that have the string on the back? Well in place of the eyes he had pictures of the WTC builings on fire.I walked away disgusted, but Jack was around to hear when a passer-by asked him "Whats with that?" He said..."..oh thats one of the deleted scenes where the Green Goblin attacks the building." -rolleyes- Im not sure if anyone bought that damn_thing. The jerk wanted 20 bucks for it. I felt like buying it just to tear the damn thing to shreds. But then I'd be out 20 bucks. One way or another that guy will get it* I just hope its soon ;)















*by it I mean somoene kicks the living crap out of him