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Info: a Big bust at the Motor City Comic Con - bootleg sellers

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 (Edited)

I was at the Motor City Comic Con in Novi, MI today and at about 4 PM they closed down every bootleg DVD seller. First there were Novi police followed by Michigan State police. All the sellers were handcuffed. After a while representatives from the MPAA and the RIAA were there. I haven’t a f’n clue why the RIAA were there. No one was selling audio CDs. Anyway about 7 PM they were all led out to a police van. All of the stock was boxed up and put into a huge U-Haul.

A side note…They all were selling copies of Deleted Magic. I noticed copies at every one of there tables.

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Oh, my! Could this be one of the main ideas behind the upcoming DVD release? And it serves them right, if they all were selling copies of Deleted Magic.

EDIT: I would hate it if they gave us an utterly crappy OOT release, for the sole purpose of shutting down fan preservation attempts that could turn out BETTER than their damn product could in the first place!
GOODNIGHT!

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Holy shit. That is fucking retarded. Goddamn you MPAA and RIAA you fucking bastards.
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Remove the bootlegs - drive up demand.

Wanna know what would drive up demand even more - A FUCKING ANAMORPHIC TRANSFER!

I hate cussing on these boards, but LFL is soooooooooooooo going at this ass-backwards, it's not even funny.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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I really wonder if it was Lucasfilm that blew the whistle.

Because I've never seen conventions get raided like this. Lucasfilm announces OOT to squash bootleggers and then this happens? Hmm. I wonder.
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That's it,.........tonight, lets all go and TP and shaving creme GL's ranch house.......

I love everybody. Lets all smoke some reefer and chill. Hug and kisses for everybody.

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I think big bust and sting operations like this are ridiculous.

Because some of this stuff may technically be considered questionable, then they could just close down their little booth or remove all items that are in violation.


But sweeping them all up and arresting them and then not telling the public what their reasons were....kind of unnecessary if you ask me.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v167/bgiffen/bigbluerig.jpg
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I would doubt it being Lucasfilm. Some of these guys had hundreds of different titles at their tables. I just noticed DM at virtually every table. Andy a few where previewing it.
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It's all about copyright. However, I thought Lucas was not a member of the MPAA. I spose it doesn't really matter. People selling bootlegs should be arrested and made to pay restitution for their ill gotten gains. There's a difference between fan preservation and bootlegging. Bootleggers are profiting off someone else's work; preservationists are not. They're both infringing on copyright though. This whole situation makes me sad.

It does seem kind of ridiculous to go after small timers.

ned
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What else were they selling? I haven't been to a comic con in years, but in the pre-DVD days it was mostly obscure anime and old tv shows. (Like the Holiday Special.) I seldom if ever saw anything that was already legally out on video or still in theaters. Of course, in this day and age, the whole show of force may have been a high profile photo-op.
Now I have a lurid vision of the Simpson's Comic Book Guy being led off in shackles!
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Where were you in '77?

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Whoa, that is almost unheard of. With people from MPAA and RIAA there.I can only imagine that this whole operatio was planned from the start. The RIAA may be involved because they suspect bootleg CDs of movie soundtracks which I have seen at cons.

Okay, I'm a pirate, but I'm no bootlegger. Whatever edits I have I make copies of freely. I may charge a buck for the case, whic is more expensive then the DVDs but that's it. Of course these guys selling Fan edits and fan films at cons are not in the right either. At most they should sell for maybe $5 but they are charging $20-30 a pop for what the good people hear have worked hard on. And they are making money off of other people's hard work. When I used to staff cons, we had zero tolerance for bootlegs so we would just shut down their booth and kick them out of the con. This is pretty harsh.

And here's the thing, Lucas doesn't have to be part of the MPAA, they can do it to anybody selling movies of US movies I think. Hong Kong and Asian films they can't really touch unless an American studio has distribution rights like Columbia with some of Jackie Chan's movies. Even then, I think if it's a legitimate product, the sellers may get away with that since it's sold as a collectable import.

My details may be a little fuzzy, though.
There's good in the Original Trilogy, and it's worth fighting for.
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
http://www.myspace.com/harlock415
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Word is a LOT of MPAA and the RIAA have been raiding all day, all over the country. They had the big guns out and will for at least a few days, I just sold some of my vintage SW figures today and heard this from the shop owner that had an attempted under-cover sting happen today. He had 5 people come in asking for the "The DaVinci Code" on DVD or Tape (a kid, lady, a total non-comic type and some teens)

So, the possible reason is this weekend’s release of "The DaVinci Code" which is likely to be one of the most bootlegged movies (besides Star Wars ) as it has spurred so much controversy, they had some protests at a few theatres here in ABQ. and I’ve also seen/read four news stories on my local news, CNN about DVD bootlegging one which mentioned DVD “sniffing dogs” and two of which were directly related to the most over hyped work of FICTION since Harry Potter!

ANYWAY, that’s just a guess made on observations made in the last week. But it does seem likely.

“My skill are no longer as Mad as the once were” RiK

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Originally posted by: Rikter
... heard this from the shop owner that had an attempted under-cover sting happen today. He had 5 people come in asking for the "The DaVinci Code" on DVD or Tape (a kid, lady, a total non-comic type and some teens)
I doubt very much that was an undercover sting. The MPAA cannot be that fucking clueless... can they?

:: Edit: Anyway, as for the bootleg sellers that got busted... yay!

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They most definately are that clueless, and then some. Not surprisingly, none of this made it into any news channels that I could find. Do they really think it's going to stop anyone from doing this? The geeks they arrested will be out with a slap on the wrist, only to continue business as usual.
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Originally posted by: TR47
They most definately are that clueless, and then some. Not surprisingly, none of this made it into any news channels that I could find. Do they really think it's going to stop anyone from doing this? The geeks they arrested will be out with a slap on the wrist, only to continue business as usual.


QFT
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v167/bgiffen/bigbluerig.jpg
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Originally posted by: Rikter[/ithe most over hyped work of FICTION since Harry Potter!


I know I don't understand people making a big deal over ficiton. Its pointless to portest fiction.
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QFT? Sorry, I suffer from TMA syndrome.. too many acronyms.
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sorry...some of the other boards I post on use it a lot:


Quoted For Truth


Sorry about that.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v167/bgiffen/bigbluerig.jpg
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Good news; too bad such raids happen rarely and probably mostly just in USA.
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A guy locally here in Louisville, Kentucky is being prosecuted for downloading "The Incredibles" using lime wire. He could face fines of I believe they said $35,000 and 4 years in jail.

“Good… Bad… I’m the guy with the gun.”

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Originally posted by: agr1170
A guy locally here in Louisville, Kentucky is being prosecuted for downloading "The Incredibles" using lime wire. He could face fines of I believe they said $35,000 and 4 years in jail.


Child molesters get off easier than this.
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Originally posted by: RIJIR

Child molesters get off easier than this.


But they only cause emotional distress, not financial.
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Sadly it is true. The deeper your pockets, the more justice you get. Bastards.
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Originally posted by: TR47
They most definately are that clueless, and then some. Not surprisingly, none of this made it into any news channels that I could find. Do they really think it's going to stop anyone from doing this? The geeks they arrested will be out with a slap on the wrist, only to continue business as usual.


I don't know about that... this kind of sets a new precedent.

A slap on the wrist would be warning them and kicking them out of the con. Getting arrested and taken away in handcuffs could be pretty traumatic for a lot of these parental-basement-dwelling no-girlfriend-having anime-masturbating no-social-skills bed-wetting bootleggers, who previously haven't had anything more serious happen to them than when their mother took their Nintendo away when they were teenagers. Now they've got an arrest on their record. Maybe they'll actually think twice about their slimy profiteering next time.

That said, I do think the whole crackdown was a bit harsh, and a bit on the scary side.

--SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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I having grown up in a town too small to host comic cons (well there has been one or two) have never been to one so I don't know exactly how they are, but I think you have to be pretty dumb to set up a booth and sale bootlegs in a public place like that. It isn't like you have to know a secered code or anything to get into one right? If they are selling things like the Holiday Special or even old SW documentaries that are nolonger obtainable ('Star Wars to Jedi' or the Making of Star Wars with Artoo and Threepio), I can understand that. But to actually sell the LD transfers for around $20 each. That just isn't very smart.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape