So it seems there's a new case of Bootlegs/Theft hitting Amazon US lately

NormanicGrav

NormanicGrav

Quintessential Grav
AUKN Staff
Recently I browsed through Amazon US as per usual and I was surprised to discover that a fair amount of users were hit by a new case of bootlegs with the title Berserk (2016), which was recently released by Crunchyroll/Funimation and is currently on sale for $32.99. I was reminded of that event not too long ago where one particular user contacted Discotek Media that their copy of Fist of the North Star (SD-on-BD) was hit by the same issue.

https://twitter.com/x/status/971146961951830017

The reason I'm bringing this up is that this has apparently been going for a lot longer than we realised. The user who bought FOTNS clarified that he bought the series from Amazon's main store and not the marketplace (even contacted their support to request a replacement which ended up being another bootleg copy). I'm convinced that there is a possibility that the bootleg stock may have been blended in with the normal stock without being noticed. It's unknown whether the other titles hit by this issue were from a marketplace seller or not, because the customer reviews where I've found the bootleg comments did not state they were bought from the marketplace.

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The titles affected by this issue are as follows (and more to be expected):
  • Berserk (2016)
  • The Big O
  • Chivalry of a Failed Knight
  • Code Geass: Akito the Exiled
  • The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
  • Dragon Ball Super [Parts 1-3]
  • Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapter [Part 1]
  • Fist of the North Star [SD-on-BD]
  • The Future Diary (2017 re-release)
  • Mob Psycho 100
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 0083
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
  • My-Otome
  • One Punch Man (Standard Edition)
  • Outlaw Star
  • Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn
  • Space Dandy (Complete Seasons 1 & 2 Collection)
  • The Testament of Sister New Devil Season 1
  • Your Name
 
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Probably a disgruntled Amazon employee stealing the real stock and replacing it with empty cases.

I mean that is the laziest bootlegging ever, whoever has done that cannot give a single damn, I'm not sure it really even counts as a "bootleg" given that there's no content.
 
Patient-X said:
Is this just at Amazon? I was thinking of buying Iron-blooded Orphans from deep discount.
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Tbh you would be better off buying IBO from Madman. Afaik the discs are clones of Funis and costs about £55(ex vat) including shipping for the full first season on bluray.

Or wait on a 30% off coupon for Second Spin, both US sets are available there atm.
 
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NormanicGrav said:
It seems to be just Amazon US, I've heard no reports from any other retailer.
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I was having a mooch around Amazon UK on Friday and there was an anime BD delisted due to issues at Amazon. Can't remember which it was now and I was only browsing out of boredom anyway.
 
Patient-X said:
Wherever I get it from I know as soon as I do AL will announce their release of it :)
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That would be nice. The lack of communication from Anime Limited with regard to Gundam is deafening. While there were complaints about their slow pace of release its now turning into people going elsewhere for their purchases.

IBO Season 1 should be out here by now, or at the very least Season 1 Part 1.
 
This ain't bootlegging, that's straight up fraud. However I was bitten before on Amazon.com. A few years back I got what I thought was the Viz DVD of the Fatal Fury OVA from a secondhand seller. This was years after the disc had gone out of print and prices were increasing in the secondhand market.

What I received however was a factory pressed bootleg, a close facsimile of the Viz disc, but it was obvious from the DVD slick that it was a copy, not original (though the slick seemed factory printed). Upon closer inspection of the disc art, I could see it was distributed by a company called xonair.com or something similar, a US porn distributor. Whether or not the disc was actually pressed and distributed by the company (surely they couldn't be that stupid), or was put on there deliberately in order to throw copyright holders and authorities off the track, I really couldn't say for sure. But it blew me away that people actually did this. This was not a crappy homemade DVD-R with laser printed slicks, but a factory pressed DVD mimicking out of print DVDs! Putting aside the cost and risks, surely this couldn't have been profitable?!

I went back to the seller and called him out on it and threatened to go to Amazon. Got my money and postage back, trashed the disc.
 
At the post above.

I bought new inuyasha dvds from ebay, and they were near perfect reproductions of the real product looks wise. Only reason I gound out was when I went to rip them my program told me it was created by a program called dvdfab

There are quite alot of well made fakes
 
Seems the fakes are getting more sophisticated. My only exposure to bootlegs has been on ebay, and when the seller sent me one it just came across as insulting. It didn't even look the same as the pictures they'd posted.

Weird that they'd factory press legit looking copies of out of print DVDs though. I can't see the profit margins on that being very high.
 
It's been 3 weeks since the topic first began on here, so I thought I'd ask these now.

Has the situation been resolved yet?

And because of this situation, is it safe to continue to use the marketplace seller All Your Music (listed in the No Import Fees topic)?
 
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So I was thinking of picking up the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure set from Amazon.com but noticed there's a was a few reviews stating that they had received an empty bluray case instead, I assume that is the same deal as this? I mean they all seem to be from late last year, surely Amazon would have sorted it out for this particular title by now?
 
not sure if it's been resolved yet but I found this not long ago
CEX was basically bootlegging the cases at least, only having the disc in most cases, what's worse, the print has their logo on the back side, so you can't trade it in to anyone else. you'd basically only get store credit for bringing it back too, since you can't sell something with their brand on it.
let's not forget that these bootlegs often can go into the second hand market, so someone not checking their used stock could sell it to you and have no clue it's actually a bootleg
 
If you check the CEX website it's there in black &white that they are "authorised to print duplicate covers" where they're damaged or missing.

Whether they have approval or not I can't see any publisher raising a complaint. Sure it sucks for the buyer if they're a collector but even then it's better to have a "fake" cover than none at all.
 
unknownfate said:
Whether they have approval or not I can't see any publisher raising a complaint. Sure it sucks for the buyer if they're a collector but even then it's better to have a "fake" cover than none at all.
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Well if we use the lawsuit that Nintendo did against Blockbuster then its against the copyright pertaining to the art assets to print your own copies.

I'd like to see CEX upload proof of them getting approval from every company that they have done this to. I personally call ******** they have approval to print their own copies, and even make their own mixed up covers with US/EU illustrations with different age ratings (which you can't use the age rating logo without approval).

I wouldn't mind fake covers if they for 1 didn't sell them the same price as real copies, and that they clearly stated on the price sticker "CEX packaging reproduction" so you know exactly what your paying for without having to pull out the cover, and faff around.
 
Lambadelta said:
Well if we use the lawsuit that Nintendo did against Blockbuster then its against the copyright pertaining to the art assets to print your own copies.

I'd like to see CEX upload proof of them getting approval from every company that they have done this to. I personally call ******** they have approval to print their own copies, and even make their own mixed up covers with US/EU illustrations with different age ratings (which you can't use the age rating logo without approval).

I wouldn't mind fake covers if they for 1 didn't sell them the same price as real copies, and that they clearly stated on the price sticker "CEX packaging reproduction" so you know exactly what your paying for without having to pull out the cover, and faff around.
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Well that's dodgy, and it's surprising that such a large company would do something so obviously illegal. You're right, there is no way in hell they have approval from every single company to do this. Plus, the fact that it doesn't openly say it on the cases when they do it would indicate they know it's dodgy and are trying to keep it on the down low.

Also, yikes, so many downvotes on that guy's video. Lots of comments saying it doesn't matter as long as the disc is real. Clearly they aren't the ones buying the anime. Anime is expensive, so I'd be super pissed to get a fake case or boxart.


unknownfate said:
No argument from me though the CEX pricing structure is a whole other topic for discussion.
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You're right about that. I still have little clue on how it works. Some items have prices that exceed the new cost in other shops (consoles, electronics), while other items are sold at next to nothing because they gave the previous owner like a penny for it or something. To try and sell repackaged goods at the same price is utter cheek though.
 
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The biggest issue with the CeX thing is that they sell legit copies and copies with reprinted covers for the same price, and don't make any effort to let people know there's a difference.

This dude's channel has a pretty good series of videos on the whole thing, including detailing what exact laws CeX are in violation of, as well as a bunch of other stuff:
 
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