The document discusses the ethics of bootleg products. It defines bootlegs as unofficial, unlicensed products like DVDs, figures, clothing that are produced without permission. Bootlegs hurt both consumers and industries. For collectors, bootlegs can be unsatisfying purchases if the low quality is discovered. Industries lose profits from lost sales. One company, Funimation, is suing bootleg sellers for $50,000 per illegal product. While bootlegs are cheap, they damage the reputation of retailers and can discourage industries from creating new official products if profits decline.

1. The Ethics of Bootleg
By Craig Bailey

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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%