David Bigas of Wyldstar in Oshawa, Ontario saw our article on the Canadian Comic Expo 2004 (see 'Cops Raid Canadian Comic Con') and liked the show, but is concerned about the proliferation of bootlegs there:

I've just returned from this years Expo and let me tell you, wow, am I impressed!  I've had a booth there every year since the start and I cannot believe how much the show has grown!  But, I'm not here to talk about how great the show was or how great the industry is -- I am here to talk about the only thing that ruined my whole weekend and pissed me off more than you can imagine -- bootleggers!

So, let me see if I get this right.  The police raid the show -- right next to my booth was the SwordStaff booth.  Everyone was arrested and the entire stock was confiscated.  For about five hours the police went thru and inspected every weapon (bear in mind, the show opened at 4 p.m. and this started at 5 p.m.).  Most of the stock was factory made replica weapons from movies like The Lord of the Rings and Blade.  Meanwhile all the bootleggers just smiled and kept selling their junk!  I don't know about you, but this seems messed.

I saw at least five vendors who had nothing but bootleg items for sale.  One lady from the States had homemade t-shirts, hats and mouse pads -- all with logos like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Stargate SG-1, Star Wars, the Monkees, the Beatles and lots more.  Another booth had replicated movie posters in white onto black t-shirts and their entire inventory was copies of DVD's including Beatles concerts and movies, G.I. Joe episodes, the Fantastic Four movie, Angel and Buffy episodes, Simpsons episodes and even Invader Zim.  I spoke with Glenn Monday from Media Blasters, who holds the license for Invader Zim, and he was furious, 'The show promoters did nothing to discourage the sale of bootleg items no matter how often they were told about the infractions.'

One table was so bold as to have home made patches of TV and comic logos like the Batman symbol, Hellboy logos and Stargate SG-1 crests and they pressing them onto shirts and hats right there at the table!  This guy brings a press to the show and makes the product right there and nobody stops him or even questions this?

Now, I do not know how many of you out there are vendors at shows such as this and the San Diego Con, but this has to stop and it has to stop now!  License holders have to take the time to go around to these big shows and put a stop to these people.  They are producing inferior quality items and charging top dollar for 'rare-one of a kind' items.

I know this may sound like sour grapes, but it's not.  As I said above, I have gone every year to this show and this year was the worst for bootleggers.  How's this for bold -- one guy had a booth next to George Romero (Dawn of the Dead) and George was selling advance copies of his new dvd, Dawn of the Dead Special Edition. Anyway, this guy had copies of the movie that he was selling at half the price!  Right next to the owner of the license.  And no one from the show stopped him!

Promoters need to but a stop to this and license holders have to get out more.  Millions are being taken out of the industry but these unscrupulous vendors.  Anyone else agree on this?