Bootlegging - A Buying and Selling Crime- A History in the United States

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Bootlegging - A Buying and Selling Crime

What is bootlegging? Although shifting from liquor to music and film, bootlegging is still a serious criminal issue. Intellectual property deserves the same protection, but is it possible to control through regulations and enforcement of law in the international system?

Bootlegging is considered as the buying and selling of any illegal product. This broad definition has allowed for bootlegging to take on different implications and nuances, including the bootlegging of alcohol or moonshine when it was prohibited in the United States during the 1920s as well as the bootlegging of music, when people would record concerts and live performances of artists and pass these on.

Bootlegging - A Walk Down History...

Foreign-made liquor which came from Canada and Mexico still reached the shores of the United States despite the ban that had been imposed on alcohol. The term bootlegging probably came about when people would hide their flasks of liquor inside their bootlegs. Due to bootlegging, the rise of organized crime also came about as these gangs would control the import of alcohol into the country as well as its manufacturing and distribution. It was also due to bootlegging that a rise in corruption and violence became evident all across the United States.

These days, bootlegging is more commonly used to refer to the illegal copying and distribution of music, films and other copyrighted material. Also used interchangeably with piracy, bootlegging of DVDs and CDs has seen a decline in sales of the music and home video industry.

The DVD industry, in particular, has been seeking ways in which they can prevent copying the material illegally. Tags are now being placed on some DVD players to ensure that only those DVDs which are legally acquired can be played on them. At the same time, these tags will also assist the store owners in storing the bar code and alerting the warehouse when there is a need for restocking of that particular title.

With millions of dollars lost each year to bootlegging, the music industry has every reason for alarm. Last year, one of the most recognizable music stores in the world, Tower Records finally closed down after poor sales owing to the proliferation of bootlegging and digital music over the Internet. Quite surprisingly, one of the nearest neighbors to the United States which is Canada is actually a hotbed of bootlegging. Many of the industry leaders have urged lawmakers to place Canada on the blacklist due to the high amounts of bootlegging that is done in their country.

Aside from the piracy of movies and software, there are also microchips made in Canada that are embedded in video games that do not have to go through copyright protection. Although the country had already been placed on a watch list along with other countries that have high bootlegging rates, Canada has done little to impose stricter regulations and sanctions within their country. Although anti-piracy technology has been developed, people have also created devices and methods in which these can be circumvented, thus bringing about continued bootlegging practices.

Most recently, software that can identify copyrighted material has been developed. With this software in place, the source of music and video clips is immediately identified. This filtering system compares the images or audio with whatever is stored in its database and if no match is turned up, then it is cleared.