CD's that have been BOOTLEGGED 4/5/2007

[Nebuchadnezzar]

The point to this thread is not to convince anyone to buy or not to buy, but simply to keep informed the people which do care what they buy. If it is a mute point of no importance to you, just dont look here

 

I've checked your thread about bootlegs and I saw Forgotten Steel's name. It's the first time I am seeing it so could you be more specific?

Thanks in advance.

[Clutch]

I read an interview with Joe Satriani where he was asked about bootlegs. His response was that the die hards will buy the boots and the official releases (or something along those lines). I agree with him. I want the official release, yes, but if you can't find it, you can't buy it. I have some boots in my collection and I will gladly replace them with the legit issues when and if they become available. If you want to beat the bootleggers then put out official product and this discussion will be over.

[cdjunky41]

I read an interview with Joe Satriani where he was asked about bootlegs. His response was that the die hards will buy the boots and the official releases (or something along those lines). I agree with him. I want the official release, yes, but if you can't find it, you can't buy it. I have some boots in my collection and I will gladly replace them with the legit issues when and if they become available. If you want to beat the bootleggers then put out official product and this discussion will be over.

AMEN!

BROTHER CLUTCH!!!

I once told Bill Peters (AUBURN RECORDS) that I had a bootleg copy of the BLACK DEATH album. He wasn't mad, he was accually happy that someone went out of their way to boot one of his titles. When he does reissue it on his label, I'm picking it up!!

[stormspell]

The point to this thread is not to convince anyone to buy or not to buy, but simply to keep informed the people which do care what they buy. If it is a mute point of no importance to you, just dont look here

 

I've checked your thread about bootlegs and I saw Forgotten Steel's name. It's the first time I am seeing it so could you be more specific?

Thanks in advance.

 

Dude, you are poking into some very old shit here. Go and do an advanced search on GEMM for the seller "FORGOTTEN STEEL" - the dude used to carry every Greek bootleg in existence. Dont know if he still does it or not.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

The point to this thread is not to convince anyone to buy or not to buy, but simply to keep informed the people which do care what they buy. If it is a mute point of no importance to you, just dont look here

 

I've checked your thread about bootlegs and I saw Forgotten Steel's name. It's the first time I am seeing it so could you be more specific?

Thanks in advance.

 

Dude, you are poking into some very old shit here. Go and do an advanced search on GEMM for the seller "FORGOTTEN STEEL" - the dude used to carry every Greek bootleg in existence. Dont know if he still does it or not.

 

Maybe, I can't remember right now. But he has a lot of rare cds too (ok, forget the prices! haha)...

[sharatan]

has the cd from saraya-when the blackbird sings been bootlegged? hope not coz i find it harder and harder to keep an agenta on all the fuckin' boots....

[rickinmd]

I read an interview with Joe Satriani where he was asked about bootlegs. His response was that the die hards will buy the boots and the official releases (or something along those lines). I agree with him. I want the official release, yes, but if you can't find it, you can't buy it. I have some boots in my collection and I will gladly replace them with the legit issues when and if they become available. If you want to beat the bootleggers then put out official product and this discussion will be over.

 

good point!

[cdjunky41]

My CHEVY c.d. is a BOOT.

I will keep it until it gets a legit release.

 

It's my fault! My album is called THE TAKER. The Bootleg is just called CHEVY (same album).

[fireforce]

Hi guys I'm a newbie here and I don't want to start anything new but...how can I know if a silver pressed CD is a bootleg? Is a specific record company or serial number I should pay attention to?

I usually avoid Russian CDs (especially those "2 in 1"), but I have noticed in the post that there are bootlegs even with Japanese "obis". How can I do?

[sharatan]

it seems that obscure metal gems signed a new distribution deal with strikeforce records for iron cross'(PA) cd if this is happening to raise the funds for steelers, i have to say that iron cross' bassist is a vikings fan....

[SUICIDE]

Hi guys I'm a newbie here and I don't want to start anything new but...how can I know if a silver pressed CD is a bootleg? Is a specific record company or serial number I should pay attention to?

I usually avoid Russian CDs (especially those "2 in 1"), but I have noticed in the post that there are bootlegs even with Japanese "obis". How can I do?

 

Avoid any company that can not be traced online. Also, an OBI indicates nothing. Alot of bootleg asian companies use OBIs but are still bootlegs. OBIs just provide additional info about the CD and tells a shop a basic example of what genre to catalogue it.

 

Here is some basic info for spotting a bootleg.

 

 

Spotting a CD Bootleg by sight:

 

1. Crappy printing: Most printing of cds is done on quality paper with colours being vibrant. No crooked artwork or blurred barcodes.

 

2. Look at your CD artwork carefully. Properly printed artwork is produced using printing presses, not laser printers, inkjet printers, dot matrix printers, or any other printer that can be bought and used on a computer desk in your own home. If looked at carefully, the artwork will have a tiny linescreen look to it. Mostly viewable when a colour fades into the white of the paper. This differs from a cheap printing done on a home printer.

 

3. Look for signs of scanned artwork: This is a big factor. A scanner will usually throw in alot of yellow colour into anything it scans. Colours are not vibrant because of this and darker colours will appear to have hazey yellow appearance. Also, white text will always appear to have blurred edges with bad colour tinting. Most scanned pics used for proper printing are colour corrected not used as is.

 

4. Look at the barcode, if one is present: Most bootleggers know nothing about barcodes as there are different types for different countries. A European barcode is different than a USA barcode in appearance. If a CD shows no indication or there is no knowledge of it being distributed worldwide lawfully yet does not use its own country’s barcode appearance, more than likely it is being bootlegged.

 

5. Look at the barcode and catalogue numbers: Most of the time they are a team. If a CD has a barcode yet no catalogue number, it could indicate a bootleg. Unless a band has self-produced their CDs and doesn’t give a shit about providing a catalogue number to it because they know they will probably break up in a year and not have a second cd.

 

6. Look at the barcode: Does it appear distorted in shape? Are the numbers under the bars looking distorted? Barcodes have a certain spec that needs to be followed when created. So someone who has scanned a fake barcode to use and then enlarges or distorts its dimensions runs the risk of the barcode not being scannable.

 

7. Look at the CD: Is it silver-pressed, a CD-R,or Silver-coated CD-R? A proper CD is silver pressed using a glass master of the music so there is no colour tinted emulsion on the data side noticeable. If a silver-pressed CD is placed side by side of a CD-R, you will see how its data side appearance is very different. Also, a silver-pressed CD and a silver-coated CDR data sides will be different in look also.

 

8. Look at the inner ring of the CD: Around the inner ring you will see the MPSI number of the CD. A dead giveaway to a bootleg is this number having the name of a CD-R brand with the numbers or no number present.

 

9. Look at the Disc Artwork: Is there artwork on it or just black thermal text over white or other basic trash on it. A lot of bootleg companies don’t use the actual disc artwork because they don’t know how to make it appear as the original on a new disc. To them it is much easier to print just black text on a white CD or a solid colour with no text or a distorted photo with no text or company logos. Also, the distorted photo will sometimes be badly cropped by the center disc hole with parts of faces missings and just not very thought out properly. A good photo disc tries to not have major parts of band members cropped off by the center hole or the disc's edge and and tries to have little to no stretching of the photo to fit the disc.

 

10. Look for bad bootleg production errors:

A: Misspellings of band names: No KIZZ for KISS, No SKIDROW for SKID ROW, No VEIN for VAIN, No SEA HOGS for SEA HAGS, you get the point.

B: An out of place font style used that totally feels like it doesn’t belong with the entire package. Most noticeable when someone is using scanned artwork and then decides to place new text in an area. The font will be brighter and cleaner than the scanned text. Same goes for parts of new artwork used over older scanned artwork.

C: Remember, bootlegs are made for quantity not quality, so quality is the last thing that matters to bootleg producers. Crooked artwork with white paper edging usually means there was no bleed of the artwork over the cut edge previously. Indicating someone scanned older artwork at its exact size and placed it on the new artwork or the designer of the CD artwork just plain sucks.

D: Watch for cookie cutter designing of CD artwork. Does the CD artwork by the company (if any) follow the same template look for every CD it releases. Meaning is it always the band logo in the same place, photo of the band in same place, title of CD in the same place. Although it is not always a sign of a bootleg, it does show a company takes no time for actual CD design concepts and more often is releasing CDs quickly and in quantity.

 

11. Word of mouth: If you have suspicion that a CD is a bootleg, I am sure others have talked about it somewhere on a message board like this one and others because of their own suspicions.

 

12. Remember the saying: “If it looks like a duck…”

 

Just a few likely signs of a bootleg CD, but remember, there are actual bad printing CD replicators that exist and do produce bad quality CDs that are the real thing. Sometimes you get what you pay for on print jobs.

[JLPRocks]

Hi guys I'm a newbie here and I don't want to start anything new but...how can I know if a silver pressed CD is a bootleg? Is a specific record company or serial number I should pay attention to?

I usually avoid Russian CDs (especially those "2 in 1"), but I have noticed in the post that there are bootlegs even with Japanese "obis". How can I do?

 

Avoid any company that can not be traced online. Also, an OBI indicates nothing. Alot of bootleg asian companies use OBIs but are still bootlegs. OBIs just provide additional info about the CD and tells a shop a basic example of what genre to catalogue it.

 

Here is some basic info for spotting a bootleg.

 

 

Spotting a CD Bootleg by sight:

 

1. Crappy printing: Most printing of cds is done on quality paper with colours being vibrant. No crooked artwork or blurred barcodes.

 

2. Look at your CD artwork carefully. Properly printed artwork is produced using printing presses, not laser printers, inkjet printers, dot matrix printers, or any other printer that can be bought and used on a computer desk in your own home. If looked at carefully, the artwork will have a tiny linescreen look to it. Mostly viewable when a colour fades into the white of the paper. This differs from a cheap printing done on a home printer.

 

3. Look for signs of scanned artwork: This is a big factor. A scanner will usually throw in alot of yellow colour into anything it scans. Colours are not vibrant because of this and darker colours will appear to have hazey yellow appearance. Also, white text will always appear to have blurred edges with bad colour tinting. Most scanned pics used for proper printing are colour corrected not used as is.

 

4. Look at the barcode, if one is present: Most bootleggers know nothing about barcodes as there are different types for different countries. A European barcode is different than a USA barcode in appearance. If a CD shows no indication or there is no knowledge of it being distributed worldwide lawfully yet does not use its own country’s barcode appearance, more than likely it is being bootlegged.

 

5. Look at the barcode and catalogue numbers: Most of the time they are a team. If a CD has a barcode yet no catalogue number, it could indicate a bootleg. Unless a band has self-produced their CDs and doesn’t give a shit about providing a catalogue number to it because they know they will probably break up in a year and not have a second cd.

 

6. Look at the barcode: Does it appear distorted in shape? Are the numbers under the bars looking distorted? Barcodes have a certain spec that needs to be followed when created. So someone who has scanned a fake barcode to use and then enlarges or distorts its dimensions runs the risk of the barcode not being scannable.

 

7. Look at the CD: Is it silver-pressed, a CD-R,or Silver-coated CD-R? A proper CD is silver pressed using a glass master of the music so there is no colour tinted emulsion on the data side noticeable. If a silver-pressed CD is placed side by side of a CD-R, you will see how its data side appearance is very different. Also, a silver-pressed CD and a silver-coated CDR data sides will be different in look also.

 

8. Look at the inner ring of the CD: Around the inner ring you will see the MPSI number of the CD. A dead giveaway to a bootleg is this number having the name of a CD-R brand with the numbers or no number present.

 

9. Look at the Disc Artwork: Is there artwork on it or just black thermal text over white. A lot of bootleg companies don’t use the actual disc artwork because they don’t know how to make it appear nice on a new disc. To them it is easier to print just black text on a white CD or a solid colour with no text.

 

10. Look for bad bootleg production errors:

A: Misspellings of band names: No KIZZ for KISS, No SKIDROW for SKID ROW, No VEIN for VAIN, No SEA HOGS for SEA HAGS, you get the point.

B: An out of place font style used that totally feels like it doesn’t belong with the entire package. Most noticeable when someone is using scanned artwork and then decides to place new text in an area. The font will be brighter and cleaner than the scanned text. Same goes for parts of new artwork used over older scanned artwork.

C: Remember, bootlegs are made for quantity not quality, so quality is the last thing that matters to bootleg producers. Crooked artwork with white paper edging usually means there was no bleed of the artwork over the cut edge previously. Indicating someone scanned older artwork at its exact size and place it on the new artwork or the designer of the CD artwork just plain sucks.

 

11. Word of mouth: If you have suspicion that a CD is a bootleg, I am sure others have talked about it somewhere on a message board like this one and others because of their own suspicions.

 

12. Remember the saying: “If it looks like a duck…”

 

Just a few likely signs of a bootleg CD, but remember, there are actual bad printing CD replicators that exist and do produce bad quality CDs that are the real thing. Sometimes you get what you pay for on print jobs.

 

Thanks, Suicide, for providing the members of our community with this excellent comprehensive check-list!

[SUICIDE]

No Problem. I updated a few things on that list.

[SUICIDE]

Thanks to whoever has banned me from editing my bootleg guide. Your efforts are much appreciated.

[fireforce]

Thanks Suicide for the reply! Excellent and very useful information!

[heaven&hell]

Thanks to whoever has banned me from editing my bootleg guide. Your efforts are much appreciated.

 

I could be wrong but I believe we're only allowed 24 hours to edit our posts due to some members in the past going back and changing history after a huge flame war.

[SUICIDE]

Makes sense. Thanks.

[Alexxtcatz]

New wave of bootleg CDs are coming:

 

Kane Robert - St (1987)

Kane Roberts - St

Kane Roberts - Saints & Sinners (1991) - booted from japanese edition

All Stryper from 1984 to 1990 (all booted from japanese cds)

both Alyson Avenue - Omega and Presence of Mind

Dirty Looks - Bootlegs (1990) - booted from japanese edition

Bootlegs

Dirty Looks - Turn of The Screw

Turn of the screw

Kuni - Masque

Treat - Organized Crime

Treat-1989

Treat - Scratch & Bite

All Sinner CDs

Warrior - Fighting For The Earth (1985)

Harlot - Room With A View

All Railway, Madison, White Lion (1985-1991), all Victory cds, early Casanova cds

Mark Free - Long Way...

Free

 

And I'm sure that all current cds from this seller are bootlegs -

http://myworld.ebay.com/carterdivineinheritance/

Item location marked sa USA but i think that all 'lucky' winners will get their cds arrived from one of eastern europe country as Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Belarus, maybe Israel or Russia

 

Item location - UK but same list of CDs and shit - http://myworld.ebay.com/cyrex-2007/

 

Alyson Ave

Alyson Ave - Omega

Kane Roberts - St

 

Also - http://myworld.ebay.com/imkastuff

Same list of CDs - Dirty Looks, Alyson Avenue, Treat, Kuni, Warrior, Domain, Sinner etc

 

from Bulgaria- http://myworld.ebay.com/belzond/

and again Dirty Looks, Alyson Avenue, Treat, Kuni, Warrior, Domain, Sinner, Casanova, Mark Free etc

 

Same list and shit -

http://myworld.ebay.com/ak-co/

[SUICIDE]

As an extra note to buyers who think they have been screwed by receiving a bootleg and are not sure whether to buy a CD from eBay or any other untraceable seller/company:

 

Most bootleggers will try to use the same artwork from the original 1st issuing of the CD. Remember, as stated in my bootleg guide, this original 1st issuing will already have had been printed once, meaning there would have been a process printing linescreen present at the time of the scanning of artwork for the bootleg pressing. The bootlegger will have not had the original artwork photoshop files to use for their new printing. Since there was an original linescreen already present, the bootleg pressing will be process printed once again. This will usually conflict with the original printing of the CD because the new linescreen will be placed over the old original version and cause a bad pattern effect on colours. Two badly registered linescreens over eachother usually cause this bad effect which professional printers call Moiré Pattern.

 

A more sneaky bootlegger will know this and have a few choices to try and solve this.

1: Blur or descreen the scanned artwork to try and get rid of the original linescreen pattern from the original printing after they have scanned the artwork.

Outcome: The artwork will now look blurry and totally shit so they just bump up the contrast abit and to them it is good to go. It still looks shit.

2: They will use totally new artwork with the use of parts from the older printing as much as they can get away with.

 

Finally, it always good to ask a seller/company where they get their CDs from. If they can't say or give you the run around about where their CDs come from or say they don't know, which is total rubbish, avoid them or play Bootleg Russian Roulette. Every seller/company knows where their CDs come from, they don't just mysteriously appear ready for them to sell to the unsuspecting buyer. Bootleggers are con men so don't be surprised to see a few self bought original CDs as decoys mixed into their bootleg lot. eBay is infamous for those types of sellers.

 

Time to shut up now, I am sure you guys are sick of reading my many words

[stormspell]

Since the new Greek bootlegs seem to come with correct matrix numbers and are getting very hard to spot, I'd say the only way to avoid buying a boot is shopping at trusted vendor only. A good place to buy with confidence is Sentinel Steel - Denis always does his homework and his stock is as genuine as it could be.

[sharatan]

Since the new Greek bootlegs seem to come with correct matrix numbers and are getting very hard to spot, I'd say the only way to avoid buying a boot is shopping at trusted vendor only. A good place to buy with confidence is Sentinel Steel - Denis always does his homework and his stock is as genuine as it could be.

 

 

 

do you mean that all these are greek? i thought kuni was licensed from reborn classics....

[stormspell]

I have no idea what "these" are. I was talking in general.

[Nick C]

Head East - Live (usually on Black Cat Records)....and I watched it go for silly money! Daft!

[eaglesfan3000]

I was one of the victims from that boob belzond for Dirty Looks. The disc has no BAR CODE and has minimal numbers and letters on the inner ring. I was wondering why this went so cheap, now I know.

 

FUCK!!!! So now I have to track this one down all over again.

[jstoyz]

Since the new Greek bootlegs seem to come with correct matrix numbers and are getting very hard to spot, I'd say the only way to avoid buying a boot is shopping at trusted vendor only. A good place to buy with confidence is Sentinel Steel - Denis always does his homework and his stock is as genuine as it could be.

 

Back ya on that issue, the counterfeiting technology coming out of Greece seems to be very high quality, and I'm sure some of these boots trade hands multiple times with no one knowing the difference. That said, I have bought CDs from a few (3-4) Greek sellers who were OUTSTANDING in every way possible, but "Buyer Beware" has never been more applicable when buying CDs online.......Jeff.