Scott Moore of Galaxy Comics in Saginaw, Michigan saw the account of the bootleg DVD busts at Motor City Con (see 'Marcus King of Titan Games on the Motor City Con Bust') and says he thinks some con dealers are just 'begging for it:'

I just read the article about the raid at Motor City last weekend.  The thing I don't understand is why this doesn't happen all the time!  Selling bootlegs has been around since the invention of the VCR and you'd think the MPAA and RIAA just discovered it.

When I was a young comic-slinging lad in the 1980's the guy I worked for would sell copied VHS tapes at cons.  He had the whole setup at home: one VCR to play the tapes (that he bought at cons from other 'pirates') and eight to ten VCRs to record.  Ren and Stimpy?  I watched him buy a copy of the first season for $20 and he must have sold dozens (easily) of copies of that tape.  I'd go to his house to watch a movie and at the same time he was making 10 copies of it to sell at shows.  With the introduction of recordable DVDs these dealers have been given a license to print money (before that they actually had a time investment, for what that's worth).  The quality never diminishes and you can knock out copies much, much faster.

Am I jealous?  A little.  But it's like dealing drugs: high reward for little effort but if you get caught... not so good for you.  I'd like to make the easy money as much as the next guy but I can't bring myself to taunt the law by openly selling obviously illegal items.  Like I said before I can't believe that the police don't raid every con in the country.  For them it would be their version of 'high reward, little effort.'  The people they want to arrest and fine are just sitting there waiting, asking, pleading, to be arrested every weekend, all over the country.  I don't care too much one way or the other about the legal issue.  It's kind of like pot.  If YOU want to do it that's ok with me but don't cry about it when you get busted.  I also think they are actually filling a need with OOP movies and old TV shows that aren't on DVD but selling MI:3 the day it's released in theaters?  That's just begging for it.

And on Friday they got it.