Moth3r wrote:
The first film widely bootlegged on VHS/Beta was ET in 1982. So I imagine that bootlegs of ESB would be extremely rare, but there might be better chance of finding a cam of ROTJ. (The '77 SW bootlegs came from telecine sources, I think.)
Some of the SW biography/history books mention how even then Fox/LFL were worried about reproductions of the film. Alluding to film reproductions. So it's a possibility but yeah unlikely.
pg. 73
Sixteen millimeter movies continued to be a mainstay of the U.S. Armed Forces-films in that format were shown in bases around the world. After about 1950 they apparently posed no problem, until 1979. At that time it was reported that more than 700 U.S. Army and Air Force cinemas around the world would not be able to screen Star Wars because of the distributor's fear of piracy. Fox refused to release the movie in 16m format to the Army and Air Force Motion Picture Service due to the possibility of piracy.
<omit>
This episode marked the first time the AAFES had been unable to acquire film right for hits houses-16m sites screen the movies for free. Fox's increased fear of piracy was grounded in the arrival of a new technology: the videocassette recorder. It worried about how easy it might be to run off cassette copies of it blockbuster hit Star Wars.
Last quote might be from Variety March 21, 1979
Also from this book is mention of another Variety article which could be the source of the SW boots:
pg. 202
"David Barnes admits pic piracy; Star Wars, others to so. Africa."
Variety April 5, 1978, p. 18
Here's a blurb which gives an idea of quantity from back then:
http://www.readfilm.com/PiracyJM.html
(from American Film: Journal of the Film and Television Arts, July-August 1978, vol. III no. 9, pp. 57–67.)
According to Variety, the Los Angeles piracy unit of the FBI has recovered more than $2 million in bootleg audio tapes and videotapes and films, including forty thousand reels and cassettes of films, together with almost $150 million worth of equipment and raw materials, since the crackdown began several years ago.
In the not-too-distant future, videotape is going to have to be considered almost equal with theatrical exhibition. Big hits like Saturday Night Fever will be seen in a theater first, because that's still a special experience, but viewers will probably be able to pick up a cassette copy on the way home for repeat viewings. It is probably no accident that recent blockbusters have been heavily influenced by music. They're less dramatic, more like a record one plays over and over again. Repeat admissions were certainly a large factor in Star Wars' success.
Never heard that music theory before, but it holds up.