Comments on: More on Motor City

By: Comics Worth Reading

Comics Worth Reading — Wed, 24 May 2006 20:29:58 +0000

[...] Continuing followup on the Motor City Comic Con bust… ICV2 has an eyewitness report. [...]

By: Judith Reboy

Judith Reboy — Wed, 24 May 2006 02:40:51 +0000

I have attended the Motor City Con twice, in 2004 and this year.

Bootlegging was rampant at this show, and the quality of the packaging wouldn’t fool my five year old niece.

Several of the products being bootlegged were either obviously taped off TV, (“Justice League”, the new “Doctor Who”, etc.) but a large number were things that are available legitimately on DVD, thus negating the arguement usually used by these individuals that they are really public spirited citizens performing a “service”.

Note: If you pay $5.00 to a pirate for a season set of “Venture Brothers”, don’t cry when Time Warner decides that it’s not worth the expense to make it anymore. DVD sales figures do, in fact, have an impact.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sun, 21 May 2006 21:34:20 +0000

I can see why con staff would think that, though. A lot of shows are run by dealers, and so they have more sympathy with those like them. The dealers are the ones paying them for table space, while a lot of creators and companies get free or greatly reduced space. Plus, ignorance can be a defense if something does happen, so they may not want to know.

That swap trick you mention where the customer doesn’t get exactly what they think they’re buying is reprehensible.

By: Lea

Lea — Sun, 21 May 2006 21:29:21 +0000

I realize none of my examples are recent, but they illustrate a long-standing problem with bootlegging, and a seeming attitude that a dealer with a table is more valuable than a creator or company rep with knowledge and a legitimate concern.

By: Lea

Lea — Sun, 21 May 2006 21:17:14 +0000

CCI has such a fine track record in dealing with bootleg vendors, the dealer’s room is ripe for a Motor City-like raid.
In previous years, Randy Bowen’s word that a dealer was selling bootlegs of his kits wasn’t enough. Bowen had to get a C&D.
Manga artist Buichi Terasawa’s assertion that a dealer selling the Cobra movie couldn’t possibly have a legit copy as it hadn’t been released to ANY home media meant nothing. This was a year he was a guest.
Waaaay back in 1989, when I was with Gainax, there was a guy not eight tables away selling anime recorded onto grocery store tapes, the titles written on the cases in marker. The room manager, David Scroggy, asked me how I knew they weren’t legit. He did have the guy remove the bootlegs from the table top, but they reappeared.
Back in 1990 or so, Comic Relief in Berkeley carried bootleg anime. It was in black clamshell cases, the inserts photocopied in black on colored paper. I did say something. It was met with the usual “How do you KNOW?”
At cons all through the late 80′s early 90′s they were MANY dealers selling bootlegs. One of the tricks was to have legit tapes on the table. When someone bought one, the bootleg (good enough to pass at a distance, but not close up) would be bagged and passed to the unsuspecting buyer.)

I did not go to ONE con from ’87 through 2000 that didn’t have at least one dealer openly selling bootlegs.
And some of the anime bootleggers were shamelessly belligerent fucks.

By: Dan Coyle

Dan Coyle — Sun, 21 May 2006 19:45:31 +0000

Wizard World Philadelphia was 2003, IIRC, and I was there, and I didn’t even hear about it until weeks afterward. They were very discreet. They seem to choose these shows at random.

By: Lyle

Lyle — Sun, 21 May 2006 19:34:41 +0000

A friend of mine told me he likes smaller cons better (though, IIRC, he dislikes Motor City) because there’s more bootleg material. He’s not so interested in buying, but he says that, unlike San Diego, the anime rooms are showing, pretty much, one (or two) guy’s collection of anime that hasn’t reached American shores, giving him an opportunity to know what to watch for later. He observed that at bigger cons (ones that the corporations attend) people are a lot more cautious and the programmers don’t have to ask a fan to program the anime room.

So, why Detroit? Possibly because they’ve realized that pirates are bolder at smaller cons where there are less copyright owners attending.

(As for San Diego, I believe there was some stuff going on last year, though it was very quiet. I heard a few whispered tales of people seeing corporate reps presenting their card and confiscating bootleg DVDs that violated their company’s copyrights… in one story it was Warner, in another it was an anime distributor.)

By: Alan Coil

Alan Coil — Sun, 21 May 2006 18:58:15 +0000

Why Detroit? Don’t know, but it didn’t surprise me.
Somebody elsewhere asked who might have placed the call that set the raid in motion. Could have been: any customer, another dealer, one of the celebrity guests, a relative of a customer who got mad about the non-quality of a dvd, etc.

It was apparent that this raid was not a spur of the moment thing. Also, I know the police that I spotted were there before 4, but I can understand that the promoter might have lost track of the time with all the tension involved.

By: Dwight Williams

Dwight Williams — Sun, 21 May 2006 17:37:29 +0000

And it might help RIAA’s Canadian branch organization, CRIA, in Toronto when the Hobbystar show in that city rolls around.

By: Michael Grabois

Michael Grabois — Sun, 21 May 2006 16:44:39 +0000

Why Motor City? Probably the timing. Maybe they wanted to send a warning shot across the bow of the San Diego and Chicago con vendors. Although, of course, a more effective message would have been to show up at San Diego with no prior warning.