Bootleg Fraud During the VHS Era

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All Forums > The Porn Pool > The Porn Pool Forum Page 433 > Bootleg Fraud During the VHS Era

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BigBobxxx Senior Member 2681 Posts 5/04	Posted - Dec 17 2008 : 11:50AM I've finally gotten around to transferring my old VHS porn videos onto DVD. This is the stuff that never made studio re-release onto DVD and/or is now permanently-out-of-print. I haven't watched a porn VHS in years. Yet, I have fond memories of scenes from my VHS days. Basically, if I'm ever going to watch them again, I need to transfer them to DVD. BTW, I pretty much re-purchased movies that I was able to buy as studio-released DVDs (e.g. the Blowjob Fantasies series). The bad news is that, I'm struck by the number of "shrink-wrapped-factory-original" VHS movies -- that I paid full retail prices for -- that now look to me to have been illegal bootlegs packaged and being sold as the real thing. For example, in transferring The Oral Adventures of Craven Moorehead #1, I became aware that there is no 2257 information contained on the video tape. There is no fucking way this movie was released by Celestial without this information! In fact, the "original" box cover shows a 2257 date of 8/20/00, but it's not on the video tape. FYI, I am familiar with this series and Celestial product. It's supposed to be there. Those of us who were porn consumers during the VHS Era were accustomed to uneven quality with VHS tapes. Poor tracking, excessive graniness, content that begins and/or ends abruptly, distorted audio, etc. were par for the course. Sure, there always issues with poor-quality factory replication, but I'm more and more convinced that illegal bootlegs were a bigger problem than we ever imagined. My VHS versions of the Blowjob Fantasies series -- the originals with the Metro green VHS shells -- always played great. Looked good, too. In contrast, my VHS versions of the California Cocksuckers series -- black VHS shells with computer-printed labels -- are very uneven. I'm thinking that, at least in Central Florida, a good 25%-50% of VHS product I purchased as new "shrink-wrapped-factory-original" VHS movies are, in fact, bootleg copies sold as new. Don't forget those good old bricks-and-mortar stroke-shop prices either. My The Oral Adventures of Craven Moorehead series tapes were $39.95 each/2 for $75.00 (and a manager's special 3 for $100 on the $39.95 stuff. I'm curious about other's thoughts and experiences concerning "Bootleg Fraud During the VHS Era." [Link]
Len801 Deactivated User 754 Posts 9/07	Posted - Dec 17 2008 : 1:34PM I'm not sure it is that easy to determine what is/was bootleg or authentic, unless of course you had an authentic and bootleg tape to be able to compare the two. Sometimes (the shoddy quality of the video and audio, tracking problems, graininess) it may have been caused by the small outfits that were duplicating these movies. Some were just mom and pop business with just a handful of machines wired together in the early days just cranking out copies. The other probem was that the VHS tapes (shell and blank videotape) that were used for duplication were bottom of the barrel product. Authentic VHS mainstreamm Hollywood movies were often no better that the hc stuff. The original material that was used was of poor quality so duplication process and poor quality VHS blank videotapes did not help the situation. Not suprising that DVD took off, and studios had to remaster and spruce up their movie catalogue if they wanted people to buy titles that they already had on poor quality VHS. Now they are pushing the buttons again by asking you to rebuy your whole DVD collection in Blu-Ray. [Link]
RevCo Member Pot 'n' Porn Party (PPP) 40 Posts 9/08	Posted - Dec 17 2008 : 2:37PM While there was some bootlegging in the VHS days, I think a lot of the problems you speak to are (as previously stated) problems of manufacturing and quality control. When I would go Times Square (before it became Disney), you could find a lot of pirated material, but it was mostly the very small/fetish studios that seemed to get copied. [Link]
BigBobxxx Senior Member 2681 Posts 5/04	Posted - Dec 17 2008 : 3:54PM There are, however, dead tip-offs that a tape is a bootleg. The FBI Warning/2257 information missing from the end product is one of these, IMHO. I agree that there is a large gray area in conclusively determining which tapes are shoddy originals, and which tapes are bootlegs. It helps when you are familiar with what a given studio's product should look like, and what items and layout are normally there. [Link]
Len801 Deactivated User 754 Posts 9/07	Posted - Dec 17 2008 : 4:50PM BigBobxxx wrote: There are, however, dead tip-offs that a tape is a bootleg. The FBI Warning/2257 information missing from the end product is one of these, IMHO. I agree that there is a large gray area in conclusively determining which tapes are shoddy originals, and which tapes are bootlegs. It helps when you are familiar with what a given studio's product should look like, and what items and layout are normally there. Click to expand I think in the early days there FBI warning and 2257 declarations on the actual VHS on box cover were not always present (the FBI was but not always the 2257). The 2257 declarations were only present after the mid 1990's, so what came before was largely unknown and unverifiable. Porn producers and distributors may have more background knowledge about the pirating and bootleg aspect of the VHS hardcore era, but I suspect from first hand consumer experience there would have been very little. VHS hc tapes were always marketed and rented in video stores with the video boxes on the same shelf so you could dtermine what you were renting. Those were large and glossy and difficult and expensive to duplicate. When you occasionally saw a sort of homemade video box (with just a hand written title on a black box, it was usually due to the fact renters had damaged the original VHS box or on occasion even stolen it. The VHS tape itself had a taped (movie title) label on the side and on the top of the videotape shell. You could tell when it was bootleg or not. If I recall exactly some companies like Evil Angel had even specific colored VHS shells (red I think), and yet even authentic product like the Rocco Siffredi movies and Anabolic and Diabolic of the early-mid 1990's were rather grainy, and with poor color resolution. [Link]

BigBobxxx Senior Member 2681 Posts 5/04	Posted - Dec 17 2008 : 5:20PM Len801 wrote: BigBobxxx wrote: There are, however, dead tip-offs that a tape is a bootleg. The FBI Warning/2257 information missing from the end product is one of these, IMHO. Click to expand I think in the early days there FBI warning and 2257 declarations on the actual VHS on box cover were not always present (the FBI was but not always the 2257). The 2257 declarations were only present after the mid 1990's, so what came before was largely unknown and unverifiable. Click to expand Len, If you read my opening post regarding The Oral Adventures of Craven Moorehead #1, you will see that I am referring to the FBI Warning/2257 information missing from the tape itself (not the box cover). For example, in transferring The Oral Adventures of Craven Moorehead #1, I became aware that there is no 2257 information contained on the video tape. There is no fucking way this movie was released by Celestial without this information! In fact, the "original" box cover shows a 2257 date of 8/20/00, but it's not on the video tape. FYI, I am familiar with this series and Celestial product. It's supposed to be there. Click to expand All porn produced after July 3, 1995 must contain the 2257 compliance notice. So, from that standpoint, I will agree with you that the lack of 2257 documentation on movies released prior to that date is meaningless. [Link]
Len801 Deactivated User 754 Posts 9/07	Posted - Dec 17 2008 : 5:47PM On occasion the production date appearing on the reverse of video box does not coincide with the date shown at the beginning or end of actual movie (VHS and DVD). I don't recall that even after 1995 these dates were always present on video/DVD or video box. Some companies simnply indicated they were in compliance without indicating a date (and if you dig hard enough some still do that today). The very large FBI logo was always present in VHS hard core and mainstream tapes, at the beginning of the movie. From direct consumer experience from the early days of video (1981) to the present date I saw very little or no evidence of movie bootleg. Most of the video stores in the early 1980's and 1990's were mom and pop businesses. They were not interested in getting into trouble with the law and lose their business. Video renting was big because it was a new medium. Even wrestling films would fly off the shelves. As I indicated the video box had to be diplayed with the tape. These were large and printed on glossy paper. There were movie title labels on the side and top of VHS plastic shell. Some video companies even had an inner thin plastic shell where the tape would rest all securely. While it would have been easy to copy/bootleg the video/audio content of the tape, it was expensive to duplicate the other things. If there was bootleg, it would have involved a rare and shifty video store owner who would buy say only 3 legit copies of a movie hit, but run off 5-10 extra illegal copies copies which he would rent to a select few under the table and keep the profits. But renting fees in those days were around $2-$3 per movie so you could not get very rich even if you went to the trouble of making illegal copies. It was mostly used to keep a few clients happy and not to lose them to the competition. Hard core and mainstream movies (from box office hits to schlock) rented well in those days and there was no Wall Mart and Blockbuster to go to and actually buy movies like today. It was mostly a rental business. Bootlegging on a large scale was in my view non existent (at least in the North American business plan) and if there was any it was usually at a small local level to satisfy a small clientele desire to see a movie right away). Pirating and bootlegging may have been more pronounced in other countries where video penetration was not as high as in the USA and where VCR and movies were expensive to rent or to buy. [Link]

All Forums > The Porn Pool > The Porn Pool Forum Page 433Bootleg Fraud During the VHS Era

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