WHAT IS A BOOTLEG?

“Bootleg” is a term that is brandished about freely by a wide array of people to mean a wide array of things. Everything from the traditional boot, to pirates, to copies, to counterfeits have at one time or another been called a bootleg. Most of the lay population (and some less informed persons within the industry) use some or all of the terms above interchangeably.

Copy:

Once you become the legal user of copyrighted material, the material is yours to use and enjoy within the guidelines of the copyright. The guidelines of the copyright however, are extremely restrictive. It is generally accepted, though, that the user will be allowed to make one copy or backup solely for her/his own use. There is never permission to make more than one copy. There is never permission to give, sale, or share this backup copy with another. This one (and only one) piece made for individual use is what industry insiders call a copy.

Pirates:

If you choose to make more than one copy of copyrighted material you have moved to this level. You have violated the copyright, and therefore, the law. Whether you are making one or two copies to give to friends, or 50 copies to sell at the flea market, it is illegal. When you make unauthorized copies of copyrighted material for any reason whatsoever, you are in violation of the law. These illegal copies are what industry insiders refer to as pirates or pirate copies. With the advent of the recordable CD, Pirates are soon going to be the record label nemesis. In 1996 pirate music CDs were virtually unknown. Today there are millions worldwide. As they can now be made by anyone with a few hundred dollars investment, they are going to quickly overtake the counterfeit as the public enemy No.1 for the major labels.

Counterfeit:

This is by far the most damaging (at the time of this writing) and illegal transgression of our discourse. While most of us would have to admit to at some point, knowingly or unknowingly, producing a pirated copy ... no one has ever accidentally made a counterfeit. When you hear the term “counterfeit money” you automatically know that we are talking about something so illegal as to warrant prison time for those who perpetrate the crime. It is no less an illegal activity to counterfeit copyrighted material such as a data or music CD or tape. As with counterfeit money, the term counterfeit refers to the exact duplication of an item. Exact down to the cover artwork, song titles printed on the cassette, etc. As you can see, these duplicates aren't made by accident. They are made to deceive the public into thinking they are buying an original product when they are not.

Bootleg:

Now we get to the crux of the discussion. Everything that you have read so far is what a bootleg is not. Now, for what a bootleg is. To get down to its legal definition ... the affixing of intellectual property of an individual to a medium for the intent to distribute said medium without owner's consent. ... OK, that's too much legalese... still, that sounds like it would be something illegal! Well, in most cases it is.

First of all, the copyright. Copyrights work in many ways on many different levels. The one that concerns us is the copyright of intellectual property. The intellectual property for the purpose of our discussion is a song. Once a song is completed it is automatically copyrighted (contrary to popular belief). The fact that the writer put it down to paper or tape gives him/her an immediate copyright. Most people choose to register their song with the Copyright Office. As confusing as it may sound, that registration process is not the copyright. Merely the registration of something that is already automatically copyrighted. In case there are ever legal questions, this registration will hold up in court as concrete evidence. The copyright also gives the owner the right to profit from any commercial use of the song.

With that out of the way, let's talk about bootlegging. A bootleg album, cassette, or CD is one that has been created completely from material (songs, spoken word, etc.) that is not commercially available. The material might be from an interview, radio broadcast, recording from a live concert, studio outtake tapes etc. etc. The bootlegger will take this material and affix it to a record album to be distributed in very small quantities. Sometimes as many as a thousand ... sometimes as few as a hundred or less. Past releases have sometimes been of very dismal quality. No matter. The releases are not going to be mass marketed ... they're only intended for a handful of collectors worldwide. Collectors who are usually so dedicated to the artist they collect that they will surely own every commercially available piece offered by the artist. As in the more recent example of Bob Dylan's Royal Albert Hall concert, or a past example of the Basement Tapes, if a bootleg item is ever released officially, the bootleg collector will be the first person in line to pay money for the released version. For the most part, we are talking about recordings that would never see the light of day any other way. The major Labels could never afford to release all of this material that would only interest a handful of fanatical fans worldwide. The only alternative to bootlegs is for the performances to be forever lost. History will decry such an austere solution. Looking back to the roots of blues, jazz, country, and rock music; there are multiple thousands of lost performances and artists that we will never hear. We are less of a civilization for the loss. Thank God for the handful of bootleggers that did preserve the recordings that we now view as true treasures of the history of music.

Watermark Proof:

The CDs are copyprotected, and also watermarked. My understanding of 'watermarking' is that each CD is different, and contains frequencies that don't affect the sound to the listener, but make it possible to identify the 'pattern'. Using this system labels keep track of which number promo was sent to whom, so when tracks were leaked onto the net before release, it was possible to detect from which promo the MP3s have been ripped from, and therefore who had leaked the promo.