none said:

Could a "bootleg" be faked today, and would we, the OT forum members, be fooled?

Who's going to take the time to insert a hair into a faked bootleg. (maybe that's why the GOUT was so expensive, they were also...) I'm all for the wild theory, and it'll be phun to debate this one.

I've been asking myself the same thing. Why would anyone fake a bootleg? Without knowing more about when and where Catnap aquired it from, this is just a theory, but it all comes down to the same old thing... Money.

Imagine it's ten years ago, before internet dissemination of all things video (Star Wars especially). Before even Star Wars had debuted on DVD at all. If you saw an ad for something claiming to be a bootleg tape of a pre ANH scroll version, or was offered it at a convention, wouldn't you be intrigued? Even pay a pretty penny? It could very possibly be worth someone's while to fabricate and sell such a "bootleg" on the black market at the time. There may even be a market for it today!

(I'm sure someone could fake the original crawl, even back then, and use the regular VHS widescreen tapes for the rest.)

Of course, now we won't have to fake a bootleg, we could just slap Moth3r's version on a VHS tape and head over to eBay. I have plenty of old VHS tapes from as far back as 1983 that could be used to lend this "bootleg" an air of authenticity, even some vintage clamshell cases. I am sure there are plenty of Star Wars fans who aren't aware of this forum and bite. Maybe even one of us might grab it out of curiosity in hope that it was a different boot! "Available now, Rare, One-of-a-kind Etc."

Now, I realize this sounds like I'm claiming that Catnap's tape is a fake. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just arguing that it could be done, credibly, and that we could be fooled.