[freezer]

For the sake of discussion:

Originally Posted by Five

the numbers that are being pressed are way down. bootleggers' profits are way down. you can hardly find them at all in my town, not like 15 yrs ago. its true that sources for boots are more easily available for bootleggers, but when you consider they're pressing 50 instead of 500 or 1000 and you can hardly find them then I'd call that hitting them where it hurts.

So you say. I say it's different. And as you did, I have statistics too.

The bootlegger who was supplying The Mushroom (boot seller in New Orleans 1 block from the Tulane campus) was caught with OVER 10,000 units in stock.

You and I are both quoting from recent news stories. I believe your numbers come from a LA Times story (please correct me if I'm wrong.) My stats come from the New Orleans Times-Picayune, which reported on this boot store's bust as local news.

I can find boots at two more independent music stores, one of which is in the French Quarter in the center of New Orleans. Tonight, right now, Beatles, Dylan, NIN...what do you want?

The Mushroom which was the store busted, FEATURED a full glass cabinet of boots of shows recorded in the New Orleans area OR boots of outtakes from albums recorded at Kingsway Studio here in New Orleans.

You may be currently unable to find them in your hometown, but when was the last time you made a concerted effort to find bootlegs? If you're in a fairly large city, especially near a college with an independent music store, you can find bootlegs. I can find them in a college town like Hammond, Louisiana (population in July 2002: 17,624). (I buy a lot of used jazz cds, so I frequent independent music shops.)

Besides why look when you can have e-mailed announcement like this come to your home:

> Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 01:00:47 +0900
> To: [email protected]
> From: E.... S.... <[email protected]>
> Subject: New Empress Valley Label Title NOW in
> Stock! #D
>
> Hiya Everybody:
>
............................................
............................................
>
> *** New Titles NOW in Stock ***
>
> The Battle of Baton Rouge (2/28/75) 3 CD Empress
> Valley Label $97
>
> California Sunshine (3/11/75 Long Beach) 3 CD
> Badgeholders Label $72
>
> Riot House (12/22/72 London, UK) 3 CD Longer Source
> from Wendy label! $72
>
> Top of the World (5/5/73 Tampa) 2 CD Badgeholders
> Label $52
>
> Led Zeppelin - The Dragon Snake" (5/21/77 Houston,
> TX SB) 3 CD Empress Valley Label 3 CD set $125
>
> Jeff Beck - Sapporo 05 2 CD Empress Valley $47
>
> Rock ON,
>
> E...

......................................................................................


Do you really believe that these aforementioned bootlegs are being pressed in lots of 50 instead of 500 or 1000?????

If so, then they'd charge "collectors" prices for them and they'd be calling them "rare" items.

Ask some of the Led Zeppelin collectors on this site about prices and if they can't find any LZ silver boot they 'really' want.... if they're willing to pay the outrageous prices being asked by boot dealers these days.

Originally Posted by Five

you can either keep the recordings out of circulation or circulate them so widely that nobody can make a profit. I prefer the 2nd option.

Lets say for the sake of discussion that somebody might possibly have an heretofore uncirculated Led Zeppelin recording. If we were to seed it simultaneously on TTD, dime, R-O, eztree, and a dozen other sites, do you honestly believe that a bootlegger wouldn't jump on it, getting his copy directly from a B/T site and press up 10,000 immediately?

The only debate here is: Will the first 10,000 copies be sold before the torrents all end? I'd venture a guess that half will be sold to registered users of R-O with a large quantity going to the same folks who would download a master clone anyway.

As someone on a Rolling Stones bootleg site once typed: "I don't want some CDr burned by some monkey whan I can buy a finished product with classy artwork" - "You know you can't get a better deal than an 'original silver boot' first pressing."