My only real complaint is when the stuff pretends to be real. I *hate* that, especially when it’s car parts or memory cards or things that can genuinely mess with people’s lives or even kill people.

If you made a CD of something that only came out in a 12” 30 years ago and will never be reprinted again because everyone is dead or bored or the companies have been in receivership for 20 years, etc...if someone actually wants it then that’s a service to humanity, as far as I’m concerned. It’s more important that the music be heard than for the six copies left on earth to maintain max value as they change hands between Martin Shkreli and Mohammed bin Salman or two trust fund kids who weren’t even born when the stuff came out.

I eagerly anticipate any high quality bootlegging of the KLF Communications catalog, for example. It can look exactly like the original stuff because everyone who cares knows those guys are never reprinting anything. This can be in a huge set of 12”s and LPs with as many unreleased tracks as possible, just intentionally misspell something. Hell, one “legit” KLF release is in fact literally a bootleg. The What Time Is Love Story is an illegal compilation of other bands’ unlicensed covers of the song. An act of double piracy!

PCE Works on the other hand can jump in a lake. They are in this new Neo Geo Freak school of thought where their bootlegs are seen either as “tribute” to the original or in some people’s minds “corrected” or superior to the originals...this mentality seems to have not taken hold in Japan and hopefully their “craftsman” mentality will keep it away but I do worry about it.

At that point I would just get files but I really only consider that if it's not available anywhere.



Only complete idiots buy it and I would imagine not that many are produced.

As it by magic, days after I mention the KLF:

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55507226

Knowing them they’ll probably let bootleggers make all the physical copies but they seem to indicate that maybe unreleased tracks will emerge. I’d pay $100 one time to hear a clean copy of The Sheriff of Mu Mu County once. I’d pay $10 just to hear them say for sure if Love Trance is actually theirs...

These kind of comebacks always sort of seem lame but in 2020...man, I genuinely crave to hear new music from them. Also, Chumbawamba who may at least get that documentary out in 2021...maybe...

Sorry if this is gravedigging - I just realized this thread existed.

What is your guys' take on the Hong Kong laserdiscs? There is an open-matte (or "pan and scan") version of The Matrix on a HK LD, with hard-subtitles in Chinese and a typo on the sleeve - there is also a somewhat weird looking version of Song of the South, that I heard somewhere was a bootleg from a VHS.

It seems like most of the bootlegs pointed out in this thread were released in Taiwan. Does anyone know about Hong Kong? I know they've infamously produced many real-looking bootlegs of DVDs and those end up on eBay, even on library shelves...

Hong Kong Song of the South was supposedly made by Pioneer USA which also seems weird to me.

I think most HK LDs were official and licensed for their rental market, though with a lot more variance in terms of quality control.