DVD Piracy and Flea Markets (1 Viewer)

[DouglasRobert]

My local news had a story of several people getting arrested for selling pirated DVDs at a Flea Market. They were turned in by people who bought DVDs at the flea market and complained about the quality.

There is a flea market really close to me, and was thinking of going there to buy some legit DVDs, but now this story has me concerned about buying DVDs from flea markets.

Has anybody bought DVDs at a flea market?

How were the prices?

And how do you tell the difference between pirated DVDs and legit copies?

Please advise.

 

[AndyVX]

There are a number of mall type places in Toronto, where all that's sold there pretty much are bootlegs. I'm actually quite surprised that none of them have been shut down yet. Pacific Mall is the major one I'm thinking of, but there are also a number of places in downtown Toronto (which I forget the names of) that are just as bad.

 

[Jon Martin]

What they probably bought was a DVD of a film still in theatres. If you have a basic understanding of what is on DVD and what isn't, what box covers look like etc, you should easily figure out what is a bootleg or not.

You can't really tell what DVDs will cost you at a flea market since they are all different. Anyone with a few dollars can set up a booth there. Whether they are selling their own collection, or selling bootlegs, they are all different.

 

[MikeEckman]

When you buy a bootleg DVD from a flea market, its usually pretty obvious that its not legit. Thats not to say there arent legit DVDs sold at flea markets, but if you use common sense, just look at the quality of the case, packaging, and disc, and you'll know which ones to stay away from.

 

[StephenA]

A flea market in my town was raided last year because most of the vendors who sold DVDs sold bootlegs, and it was blatantly obvious that they were bootlegs. I couldn't help but laugh at how lousy the covers looked and all that, and yet people were still gullable enough to by them. My mom accidentaly bought a couple not really knowing, and they wouldn't even play in my or my uncle's DVD players. Only the PS2 we had would play them.

 

[guille verdun]

hi there:

I live in Paraguay and based on the recent report of some international anti-piracy organization, my country is the biggest seller of pirated cd, dvds and software of Latin America. Not a thing to be very proud off. All this is directly based of a poor support of the goverment to the people. This situation creates the need to do bussines in any way to get your daily bread. So people sell pirates stuff here like hot bread in the morning.

I saw Spiderman 2 last week here, luckyly we receive the new movies very fast after the north american release. But on the dvd and vcd we allready could buy the movie 2 weeks ago on every corner off the main streets of the city. The same thing with Troy and other releases. In the case of ''The Passion'' people almost didn't went to the theaters because everyone saw the movies at home via these ''vcds'' months ago.The quality of this cd's are horrible and others are very well done.

I dont buy pirated stuff, i only buy dvds via amazon or any other retailers online, because here the dvds are expensive an i got better deals on the web... and luckyly i have a great job an can aford this kind of things.

Resuming...the thing is that the piracy exist because the need for getting a job or getting money to live every day pulls people to do this kind of thing, especially in third world countries like mine.

I blame the politicians and goverments in any af these countries because they dont create the sufficient oportunities for people to get a decent job... i mean...you got the idea...

have a nice day...

 

[Chad R]

I'm still looking for the bootleg of Deathblow as I hear the framing and panning on that bootleg is divine.

 

[Carl Walker]

My local flea market video dealer has 100% legitimate DVD's. Prices are $13 per title (or $16 for 2-DVD releases). The DVD's are factory sealed with the security stickers on the sides, security tag inside, and, where applicable, the stickers on the outsides of the shrinkwrap for rebates, free movie tickets, etc. He has been in business there since the late 80's with VHS and now has over 1,000 DVD's to choose from. He typically has the new releases each week... For example, he had about 20 copies of Butterfly Effect on hand this weekend.

Needless to say, I buy almost all of my DVD's there. The only drawbacks are having to wait until the weekend to buy and the fact that he isn't guaranteed to have any particular title in stock. I usually buy the titles that I want but don't care if I have to wait a week or two for... Examples would be Big Fish, Kill Bill, 50 First Dates, Brother Bear, etc. I WILL NOT be buying the Star Wars Trilogy from him because I absolutely MUST have it by the stroke of midnight on 9/21 (if not sooner )

 

[Keith Paynter]

This thread will be potentially closed if discussion inadvertantly continues to inform where the product is available. Bootleg discussions are verboten...

Suffice to say 'informed' moviephiles should avoid these discs. 'Uninformed' consumers should be advised as such.

 

[AndyVX]

Hmm, should I edit my post then (second post on the page)? While yes, I named a place where they are sold, I did so so people would avoid buying from that place.

 

[Jeannette Walsh]

I inadvertantly bought a chinese bootleg a couple of days ago at a respectable used DVD/CD/BOOK store near me. It had chinese writing on the cover but I thought it was a ligit import of "Dead Poets Society" someone had got rid of. When I got home and looked at the cover closer I noticed

1. the menu box (listing the ratio, sound options etc) was from the movie "Vanilla Sky"

2. the synopsis was from the movie "Finding Forrester"

3. the credit list was from the movie "The Score" (De Niro)

strangely though the movie played and looked fine. I took it back and replaced it.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

[c] I WILL NOT be buying the Star Wars Trilogy from him because I absolutely MUST have it by the stroke of midnight on 9/21 (if not sooner ) [/c]

And though I'm not in North Carolina, I won't be buying it from him either because they won't be the original versions! (REALLY cheap shot there, but can you blame me?)
(runs for cover from the flying tomatoes)

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Yea Jesse!

 

[Tory]

The only DVD seller at my local flea market sells used DVDs from a video store that sells pizza a town over. These are legit and they kept the inserts. Buy three for six to seven bucks each and get a free pizza! I guess you get more shady dealings in the bigger cities but not every store in a flea market is crooked. I think my local one is actually owned by a TV reporter so they may have a higher standard.

 

[Dick]

I don't buy into this. People have to be accountable. If they break the law they are responsible and must face the consequences. If the economics of a person's town or country will not properly support its population, the laws need to be changed, and the people are responsible for getting that done. Producing and selling illegal products as a means of rising from poverty is nothing more than a form of corruption that will send people even further into the abyss.

 

[Brian Thibodeau]

This works if the people can be accounted for by the government at large and charged by its officers (see non-example above). A great many shops, and not just entertainment retailers, in the places in question here in Canada do not charge sales tax if the customer pays in cash. In fact, they usually add a surcharge if you try to pay by credit card, since such transactions are then known to the authorities. This, of course, does not mean they don't pay tax, or that they don't simply include it in the price and round off to the nearest dollar, but it certainly opens up opportunities to fly under the radar, especially when the vast majority of customers have come to expect good deals and - knowingly or not - continue to look the other way.

As for the flea market vendors, I personally tend to think they represent the bottom end of this ongoing problem.