The Ethics of Bootleg

By Craig Bailey

What are bootleg

products?

• Bootleg products are products

that are produced but are not

the officially licensed material.

• This can include DVDs,

Collectibles, Figures, clothing,

etc.

Where are bootleg

products present?

• Bootleg products are present in

every form of market.

• Bootlegs pose a huge problem

to both the industry they come

from and the consumer.

How does this effect

me?

• Bootleg products are essentially

consumer scams, though some

people are happy paying cheap

prices for similar products most

collectors want the real item.

• If you are a collector and are fooled

by a bootleg product a lot of times

you are paying for a high end product

that turns out to be fake.

Ethical Ramifications

• Especially during the holiday season

many people fall victim to bootleg

products, this causes a lot of people

to be unsatisfied with their

purchases.

• Though many vendors do not care

about their customer base being

unsatisfied there can be a high

amount of legal ramifications.

Ethical Ramifications

cont.

• A company known as Funimation one

of the top companies for the

production and distribution of anime

products in the US has recently

started a campaign to stop bootlegs

from being sold in the US.

• Funimation has gone as far as suing

each company for a total of $50,000

per bootleg product they find where

they hold licensing.

Ethical Ramifications

cont.

• Along with being sued there are

other problems to violating this

licensing laws.

• By selling bootleg products you are

also opening yourself up to jail time

if caught.

• Recently more law enforcement

divisions in the US are seeking

bootleg products and their vendors.

• This is typically resulting in some

form of jail time.

Where do most bootlegs

come from?

• Most bootleg products come from China.

• This is strongly due to cheap labor, and

relaxed standards on production.

• For example if you go on Ebay and search

the product Figma (a high end japanese

figure line) you will find most products

listed at $10-$30 and shipping from china.

• These figures are not even wholesaled for

less than $35 a piece.

How this effects the

industries?

• Bootlegging takes away profits from

the licensing companies and even

the small businesses that distribute

them.

• Though most collectors are willing

to pay for a real product some

people use the bootleg prices as a

comparison to the real products.

• This causes sales to drop in a

already niche market.

How this effects the

industries? Cont.

• If profits are lessened in an

industry by the presence of

bootlegs it the industry is

discouraged from bringing in

new products.

• This will cause the industry to

slowly weaken and die off, or

create a less desirable product.

My experience with

bootlegging

• Currently I have owned a business

for 5 years.

• For the first 3 years I carried almost

exclusively bootleg products, though

at the time I was unaware I was

carrying them.

• Bootlegs lead me to have a lot of

sales and huge profit margins

however they also lead to a stigma

around my business from true

collectors.

My experience with

bootlegging cont.

• This stigma created a reputation

that still haunts me a little to this

day.

• After finding out I had bootleg

products and almost getting kicked

out of several events I cleaned up

my store.

• I am currently almost 100% bootleg

free at this point and in the last year

have watched my business grow by

nearly 900%