Pirated DVDs for sale at GenCon

[Henry]

Side issue: I NEVER had any ill-reception at a Milwaukee Gencon in the 4 years I went. All the local merchants were MORE than happy to see us (and I can imagine the General Goolsby's, etc. were pretty sad to see us go. They still have Milwaukee Game Fest, but it's still got a ways to grow.

As for pirated materials, there's a slew of that each year - heck, you can spot the fake celebrity autographs a MILE away, and people stil get burned on them. In Gencon '03 my friend who went with me had a sure-fire way to eliminate that issue - he got the celebrity autographs first-hand.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

From what I understand (I wasn't able to go to Gen Con until it moved to Indy), Milwaulkee hated the con, generally resented the hoard of gamers that came there every year, and weren't exactly crying to see it leave (a few businesses that directly profitted like nearby resturants aside). Indy seems to be much friendlier and welcoming (of course, they're used to big conventions).

I've been going to GenCon for 21 years, which includes 19 in Milwaukee. The residents and businesses of Milwaukee were never anything less than enthusiastically friendly to me or to anyone I've heard from. The wait staff in one little diner, the Olympic Cafe, remembered the names of those in my group from year to year. Think about that ... we're five or six gamers they see for a few days every year, and they remembered our names. (And no, they weren't cheating and looking at our badges.) In fact, after the Olympic closed -- to make way for the expanded convention center -- a couple of the waitresses actually bought badges and visited the con, just to be able to see first-hand what had been going on all those years, and to say good-bye to people they only saw four or five days out of the year. Say what you will about "business motive," but that's way above-and-beyond.

I support the move from Milwaukee to Indianapolis, but not because of any unfriendliness. It simply outgrew Milwaukee ... having to travel several miles back and forth to your hotel room every day renders an already exhausting four-day experience almost overwhelming. In Indy, there's enough hotel space for everyone to be within a block of the convention center. Indianapolis businesses have gone out of their way to be welcoming to us 20,000 geeks, but even so, Milwaukee still feels friendlier ... though I suspect that's largely a matter of familiarity, nostaligia, and -- dare I say it -- that cute Wisconsin dialect.

 

[Funksaw]

well, some dude was selling a burn of Jet Li's "hero". and when i mean burn, i mean disc with a handwritten title and a photocopied case.

it was sleazy.

Might be more to this than you think. Yes, Jet Li's "Hero" is coming out in theatres - but only the people who pirated it online - and the people who live in Hong Kong" get to see the movie before the studio hacks it to bits to dumb it down for the American audience. I could see how pirated - and therefore complete - DVDs would be in demand.

That doesn't excuse him selling them though. Now, if he was giving them away, I wouldn't mind so much.

 

[frankthedm]

A fact of life at cons, part of the draw and why some people go there. a lot of the dealers like that have stuff you cannot get without downloading it. Often times it is what the studios won't let out or won't get off thier buts to release, both old and new. Tomb of Dracula, the song of the south[will NEVER see legit DVD], REAL star wars 1,2 &3, the WORST of the WW2 propaganda cartoons and shows from your childhood that would never be seen again if not for the rabid fans. Plus not everyone kow-tows to the 'seperate the world' shtick the megacompanies are trying with reigon encoding.

If the companies paid attention more to whats is selling at cons and released it, these guys wouldn't have much business Yes, you George, wants to continuosly rehash our prized memories, Lucas.

Wal-mart can beat thier asses on prices and suncoast is competative when they want to be [these guys normally rip you $20 a disk]

when I can get the discs from the people with the copyreichs, i will

waiting for

Fox TV's Werewolf TV show [late 80's when fox was new]
Real Ghostbusters seasons 1, 2 and 3
Digimon second series subtitles[ok, just the lovecraftian 13th episode] - IA! IA! Dagoman Fthagn!
Japanese Shadow over Innsmouth movie.

i am willing to throw my money at the legit companies, but i am not going to wait around being wizzed on.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I mean, arrested for jaywalking? It's a competitive sport in Boston!

For the US-illiterate, what exactly is jaywalking?

 

[sumi]

Jaywalking is not crossing the road at appropriate places like zebra crossings, pelican crossings and traffic lights. Therefore, you are endangering yourself as traffic is not expecting you to cross there. It is illegal in this country as well, but our police don't care.

In Israel I saw a women caught jaywalking and she ended up sprinting down the road to avoid the traffic cop who was after her. Nasty horrible criminal she should have accepted her punishment.

 

[Buttercup]

Jaywalking is crossing the street at any spot other than an official crosswalk.

 

[mythusmage]

Jaywalking: Crossing at the middle of the street instead of the intersection, or crossing on a red light.

 

[WayneLigon]

I guess I'm kinda surprised anyone would be surprised to see pirated DVDs/VHS tapes, etc. I have not been to a lot of conventions but every single one I have been to has had at least one pirated media vendor. DragonCon, unless they've changed dramatically in the last three or four years, regularly had up to five such vendors. Some of it is a direct pirate, most are probably Hong Kong video (As I understand it, Hong Kong has not signed virtually any international copywrite agreement, so it's kind of a gray area for them), while some others are just fan-favorite stuff that isn't on DVD or not available in this country.

Generally I'm very much against supporting them but at the same time they do have things that you simply cannot get elsewhere. I doubt that VHS transfers of Thundaar cartoons are picking anyone's pocket and you can't get stuff like that elsewhere. I picked up a pirate set of Neverwhere on VHS quite some time ago simply because it was not available in this country. When it became so on DVD, I bought the DVD.

 

[shouit]

I am of similar belief as Wayne. Take for example the DnD cartoon, I have many found memories of this show, but I doubt it will ever see an official DVD release. But I know of a place where I can get it pirated. Would I be willing to pay for this, yes. Am I going to wait till I seventy years old to see it again, no. Just my 2 cents. Doing things outside of the rules is sometimes the only way to get things done.