No bootlegs
 

I think some of us area aware of this, but I believe it's a good idea to put this topic here for new users that would come to the forum for answers and questions.

I even used to put bootlegs, but stopped and deleted images in light of how easy this site can get shut down because of posting of images from movies that aren't released from DVD. This should be an absolute law of the site for anyone and if any bootlegged images are seen, they should be deleted right away. This site cannot be targetted as a place where we allow and promote the means of bootlegs to get images of what we want.

I just gave a stern warning to Kin93. He is 14 and from Hong Kong, so he may not be as aware of how serious this is in the U.S. We must really strive to educate new members that bootlegged images will get us in trouble.

I work in the industry and believe me, they have no patience for piracy. IMFDB does well enough without posting images that are obviously from bootleg copies of unreleased movies. We don't need to be bringing the attention of the studio LAWYERS on our doorstep.

Touchy people, those in the film industry

You would be too if some dude took a camcorder into an advance screening or worse, paid off someone to make a quick dupe .... and then 10 million DVDs (of which you don't get a nickel for) are being sold around the world by pirates originating from China or Indonesia or Malaysia or Pakistan.

There is a black list of (I think) 14 countries who are notorious for taking your movie, pirating it, and then selling it all over the world for pennies and you don't make any $$ for your efforts. Believe me, the concept of someone making $$ of YOUR work hits home (cough* someone using my gun pics to populate their gun store/auction website * cough). I don' t have the entire list now.

Believe it or not, United Arab Emirates is now OFF the list. Enough of them are tired of the pirate bootlegs which many times don't play in their DVD players because they were encoded so poorly, and they end up actually BUYING the OEM product. OF course with digital downloading that business model will change.

DVD bootleggers are scum.. Of course YOU dont' know anyone like that do you?

Depends. One thing I think is fair to remember is that some of them operate in countries that have extremely harsh limits on freedom of speech, like China, which bans just about anything and everything that is deemed "dangerous" to the whole "harmonious society". In cases like that, I think it's important to remember that the bootleggers are helping their people get a taste of freedom that's being denied to them by their evil governments, and besides, it's money that Hollywood wouldn't be receiving anyway.

The problem, of course, is that they don't care that once they put something on the 'Net for all of their countrymen to see, it will inevitably reach other servers where it can be accessed by everyone else in the world, including people in countries who have no excuse for stealing.

So I think it's kinda wrong to say all bootleggers are scum as a blanket term. Surely you don't think the ones who are fighting government censorship in their commie or shariah-governed countries by bootlegging are really as bad as bootleggers in a country like America?

I was being flippant. :) Don't read too much into it. I was just talking about the guys who are out to make a quick buck versus someone who is trying to liberate a country. I heard that RAMBO (2008) is being shown ala bootleg copies in BURMA. Stallone and the production company know about it ... and are proud of it.

Ah, OK.

And yeah, it was kinda funny when the junta in Burma got upset with Stallone for making them the cannon fodder bad guys in "Rambo" - more so when their whole country started rallying around that movie.

Well I am saying this site is for non-profit. I get the other reason why we don't do bootleg is to promote the buying of legitimate copies of movies, but it isn't like we're gaining any money for posting any of the stuff we do. All we get is just self gratification for the time and effort we all did. And yeah, I do agree that most bootleg images are crap and shouldn't be posted for the sole purpose that we put good quality images on this site.