A
bootleg recording is an
audio and/or
video
recording of a performance that was not officially released by the
artist, or under other legal authority. The process of making and
distributing such recordings is known as
bootlegging. A great many such recordings are
simply copied and traded among
fan
of the artist without financial exchange, but some bootleggers are
able to sell these rarities for profit, sometimes by adding
professional-quality sound engineering and packaging to the raw
material.
Bootlegs can consist of recordings of live performances, or
material created in private or professional recording sessions.
Changing technologies have had a great impact on the recording,
distribution, and varying profitability of the underground
industry. The
copyrights for the song and
the right to authorize recordings often reside with the artist,
according to several international
copyright treaties. The recording,
trading and sale of bootlegs continues to thrive, however, even as
artists and record companies attempt to provide "authorized"
alternatives to satisfy the demand.
Definitions
Some artists consider any release for which they do not receive
royalties to be equivalent to a bootleg,
even if it is an officially licensed release. This is often the
case with artists whose recordings have either become
public domain or whose original agreements did
not include
reissue royalties (which was a
common occurrence before the 1960s).
Many bootlegs consist of private or professional studio recordings
distributed without the artist's involvement, including
demos, works-in-progress or discarded material.
These might be made from private recordings not meant to be widely
shared, or from master recordings stolen or copied from an artist's
home, a
recording studio or the
offices of a
record label. A number of
bootlegs originated with
FM radio
broadcasts of live or previously recorded live performances.
However, the most common type is the
live bootleg,
or
audience recording, which is created with
sound recording equipment smuggled
into a
live concert. Many artists and most
live venues prohibit this form of recording, but from the 1970s
onwards the increased availability of portable technology made such
bootlegging increasingly easy, and as this technology has improved
so too has the general quality of these recordings.
The alternate term
ROIO or
RoIO,
an
acronym meaning
"
Recording
of
Indeterminate
Origin", or
"
Recording
of
Independent
Origin", arose among
Pink Floyd collectors trying to clarify
the differences between counterfeits, illegally made copies, live
bootlegs, and "ROIOs", meaning recordings whose legal status was
difficult or even impossible to determine. The term has spread
beyond Pink Floyd fans but its recognition and usage depends
largely on the individual community. It is also sometimes used to
denote a Pink Floyd recording of any kind.
History of bootlegging
1970s and 1980s
During the 1970s the bootleg industry in the United States expanded
rapidly, coinciding with the era of stadium rock or
arena rock. Vast numbers of recordings were
issued for profit by bootleg labels such as
Kornyfone and
Trade Mark of Quality. The large
followings of bands such as
Deep Purple,
Eric Burdon,
Led
Zeppelin,
Black Sabbath,
The Rolling Stones and
Pink Floyd created a lucrative market for the
mass production of unofficial recordings on
vinyl, as it became evident that more and
more fans were willing to purchase them. In addition, the huge
crowds which turned up to these concerts made the effective
policing of the audience for the presence of covert recording
equipment virtually impossible.
In
Los
Angeles
there were a number of record mastering and
pressing plants that were not "first in line" to press records for
the major labels, usually only getting work when the larger plants
were overloaded. These pressing plants were more than happy
to generate income by pressing bootlegs of dubious legality.
Sometimes they simply hid the bootleg work when record company
executives would come around (in which case the printed label could
show the artist and song names) and other times secrecy required
labels with fictitious names. For example, a 1974 Pink Floyd
bootleg called
Brain Damage was released under the name
The Screaming Abdabs.
Bootleg collectors in this era generally relied on
Hot Wacks, an annual underground magazine
catalog of known bootlegs, for information about recently released
bootleg albums. It provided the true information on releases with
fictitious labels, and included details on artists and track
listings, as well as the source and sound quality of the various
recordings.
The market outlets for bootlegs-for-sale were varied . In the early
years, bootlegs could be bought from vendors lurking in the alleys
and parking lots around live venues, as well as at
swap meets,
street
market, record collector shows, and smaller record stores.
Mail order sources were advertised by
word of mouth, and in many cases uniquely associated with
individual bands.
There were major markets in Japan
and Europe for Led Zeppelin bootleg
recordings, Beatles
bootlegs, and rarities from The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple,
Pink Floyd, KISS, and Queen, among others.
Throughout the 1970s most bootleg records were of poor quality,
with many of the album covers consisting of nothing more than cheap
photocopies. However, later in the
decade a number of unofficial "labels" such as
Swinging Pig emerged in
Europe, which released limited editions of better
quality recordings, with improved album artwork. This trend in
enhanced audio and packaging standards continued into the
1980s.
The 1980s saw the increased use of
audio
cassettes and
videotapes for the
dissemination of bootleg recordings, as the affordability of
private
dubbing equipment
made the production of multiple copies significantly easier.
Cassettes were also smaller, easier to ship, and could be sold or
traded more affordably than vinyl.
Cassette culture and
tape trading, propelled by the
DIY ethic of the
punk
subculture, relied on an
honor
system where people who received tapes from fellow traders made
multiple copies to pass on to others within the community.
For a
while, stalls at major music gatherings such as the Glastonbury
Festival
sold mass copies of bootleg soundboard recordings
of bands who, in many cases, had played only a matter of hours
beforehand. However, officials soon began to counteract this
illegal activity by making raids on the stalls and, by the end of
the 1980s, the number of festival bootlegs had consequently
dwindled.
According to Clinton Heylin, author of
Bootleg: The Rise &
Fall of the Secret Recording History, the five most bootlegged
artists are The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Bob
Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. Probably the most celebrated bootleg
recording is
The Black
Album by
Prince. The
album was to have been a conventional major-label release but was
pulled back from the market almost immediately after its initial
release in November 1987. Bootlegs appeared shortly thereafter from
a variety of sources and with widely different sound qualities.
Reportedly, over 500,000 copies were sold.
1990s and 2000s
In the 1990s, there was a widespread conversion of many of the
older bootlegs onto the
compact disc
format. Unofficial recordings became more readily available than
ever before, resulting in thousands of bootlegs being circulated on
CD amongst avid collectors and fans, in many cases of shows which
had been originally recorded over thirty years previously.
In
particular, companies in Germany
and Italy
exploited
the more relaxed copyright laws in those
countries by pressing large numbers of CDs and including catalogs
of other titles on the inlays, making it easier for fans to find
and order shows direct. Similarly, relaxed copyright laws in
Australia meant that the most serious legal challenge to
unauthorized releases were made on the grounds of
trademark law by
Sony Music Entertainment in 1993.
Court findings were in favor of allowing the release of
unauthorized recordings clearly marked as "unauthorised". However,
the updated
GATT
1994 soon closed this so-called "protection gap" in all three
aforementioned countries effective January 1, 1995.
Filling in the vacuum, with the
Internet
expanding, bootleg websites and mailing lists began to appear,
including public websites catering to collectors who exchanged
tapes and CDs free of charge, and surreptitious ones devoted to the
sale of bootlegs for profit.
During this period, composer
Jerry
Goldsmith became well-known for physically smashing bootleg CDs
presented to him to sign.
A German outfit
called Tsunami Records was
prolifically selling unauthorized recordings of Goldsmith's music
for prices that generally exceeded standard retail for a single
disc.
The tightening of laws and increased enforcement by police on
behalf of the
British
Phonographic Industry (BPI),
Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) and other industry groups—often
for peripheral issues such as
tax
evasion—gradually drove the distributors of for-profit vinyl
and CD bootlegs further underground.
Physical bootlegging
largely shifted to less regulated countries such as Hong Kong
, Russia
, France
and Brazil
, with the
results distributed through existing underground channels, open
market sites such as eBay, and other
specialized websites.
However, the late 1990s and early 2000s saw an increase in the free
trading of digital bootlegs, sharply decreasing the demand for and
profitability of physical bootlegs. The rise of standard
audio file formats such as
MP3 and
FLAC,
combined with the ability to share files between computers via
e-mail,
FTP,
instant messaging, and specialized
peer-to-peer file sharing networks such as
Napster (now defunct as
p2p),
Limewire, and
BitTorrent, made it simpler than ever
for bootleg collectors to exchange rarities. Older analog
recordings were converted to digital format for the first time,
tracks from bootleg CDs were
ripped to
computer hard disks, and new material was created with
digital recording of various types, and
all of these types could now be easily shared. The quality and
portability of recording devices and microphones also increased
exponentially, resulting in recordings which were often on a par
with official releases. One notable change caused by this shift in
technology was the unit of exchange: instead of album-length
collections or live recordings of entire shows, fans often now had
the option of searching for and
downloading bootlegs of individual songs.
Legal issues
Bootlegging vs. piracy vs. counterfeiting
An illegally copied release is distinguished from a
counterfeit. Counterfeits attempt to mimic the
look of officially released product; illegally copied releases do
not necessarily do so, possibly substituting cover art or creating
new compilations of a group's released songs. A counterfeit is
always an illegal copy but an illegal copy is not necessarily a
counterfeit.
"Bootlegging" is sometimes also used to refer to the unlicensed
file sharing of
copyrighted music but the term illegal copying or
"piracy" is usually used instead. In the same vein, "bootlegging"
has become the default term amongst Japanese
anime fans to describe the piracy or counterfeiting of
CDs,
DVDs,
computer and video games,
arcade games, and other merchandise.
These
increasingly sophisticated imitation goods from Hong Kong are much reviled by fans and the industry alike,
and many anime fan conventions have
adopted a strict non-bootleg policy for vendors and
attendees.
Laws and court rulings
The
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic
Works has protected the copyrights on literary, scientific, and
artistic works since 1886. Article 9 of the Convention states that:
Authors of literary and artistic works protected by this
Convention shall have the exclusive right of authorizing the
reproduction of these works, in any manner or form. [...]
Any sound or visual recording shall be considered as a reproduction
for the purposes of this Convention.
The
World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), founded in 1967, is
one of the specialized agencies of the
United Nations, aiming for the international
protection of
intellectual
property rights. According to Article 6 of the international
WIPO
Performances and Phonograms Treaty of 1996, all performers own
the rights to their own performances:
"Performers shall enjoy
the exclusive right of authorizing, as regards their performances:
(i) the broadcasting and communication to the public of their
unfixed performances except where the performance is already a
broadcast performance; and (ii) the fixation of their unfixed
performances." The
WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties
Implementation Act in the United States says
"(a), unless
authorized by the owners of copyright in the sound recording or
[...] in the musical works embodied therein, neither the owner of a
particular phonorecord [...] may, for the purposes of direct or
indirect commercial advantage, dispose of, or authorize the
disposal of, the possession of that phonorecord [...] by rental,
lease, or lending, or by any other act or practice in the nature of
rental, lease, or lending."
Most artists have made little effort to pursue legal action about
bootleg recordings, viewing such "rarities trading" as harmless
provided that it is not being done for profit. The benefits of
interfering with such trading are fairly minimal compared to the
potential ill-will generated against the artist, as the illicit
works are generally circulated among the artist's most loyal fans,
which have the most interest. Most record companies also have not
shown an interest in pursuing or prosecuting small-scale
bootleggers, but this could change at any time.
However, in 2004 U.S. District Judge Harold Baer Jr. struck down a
1994 law banning the sale of bootleg recordings of live music,
ruling that the law unfairly grants a seemingly perpetual copyright
period to the original performances. He dismissed a federal
indictment of Jean Martignon, who was running a Manhattan
mail-order and Internet business that sells bootleg recordings. The
Recording Industry Association of America disagreed with the
ruling, saying the decision "stands in marked contrast to existing
law and prior decisions that have determined that Congress was well
within its constitutional authority to adopt legislation that
prevented trafficking in copies of unauthorized recordings of live
performances", according to spokesman Jonathan Lamy.In 2007, Judge
Baer's ruling was overruled, and the 2nd Circuit of the US Court of
Appeals found that the anti-bootlegging statute was within the
power of congress. 492 F. 3d 140
Legal alternatives to illicit bootlegging
Artists and record companies have attempted to find ways to provide
authorized alternatives to satisfy consumer demand for bootleg
recordings, including the marketing of their own
live albums and rarities collections.
Authorized live bootlegs
An increasing number of artists have decided to allow and encourage
live audience recording, although they and their fans generally
consider the
selling of such recordings—as opposed to
keeping them for one's own personal enjoyment or trading them for
other audience recordings—to be illegitimate bootlegging. Fans cite
the encouragement of these recordings as a key factor in their
long-term loyalty to these bands.
In addition, many performers have made joking suggestions to
bootleggers presumably in the audience, especially when a new or
unusual song is about to be performed. Fans often hopefully cite
such comments as evidence of permission to make bootleg
recordings.
The Grateful Dead is well known
for explicitly allowing their shows to be taped.
Instant live bootlegs
In the early 2000s, artists responded to the demand for bootleg
concert recordings by experimenting with the sale of authorized
bootlegs made directly from the unmixed
soundboard feeds, or from
on the fly multitrack mixes, and thus superior to
surreptitious audience recordings which are typically marred by
crowd noise. These releases were generally available a few days to
a few weeks after the concert.. Notable examples include Genesis,
and Peter Gabriel, who has released such copies of live recordings
for most of his concerts since 2003.KISS recorded their shows and
sold the copies right after the concert was over during their 2008
world tour.
In the mid-2000s, improving technology in high-speed CD
reproduction made some of these "official boots" available to
audience members immediately as they leave the concert; some
companies can begin selling complete concert CDs less than ten
minutes after the end of the show.However, a key patent in the
process (that of dividing the single recording into discrete
digitally marked tracks during recording) was bought by media giant
Clear Channel
Communications, which sued smaller competitors for
patent infringement to force them out of
the business. When Clear Channel divested its live entertainment
business into the spin off company
Live
Nation in 2005, the patents were transferred as well. The
patent ( ) was revoked by the USPTO in 2007 after challenges filed
by the
Electronic
Frontier Foundation.
Commercially released bootlegs
Many recordings first distributed as bootleg albums were later
released officially by the copyright holder; for instance, the
release of Bob Dylan's 1966
Royal
Albert Hall concert on Vol. 4 of his Bootleg Series in
1998 effectively killed the demand for bootlegs of the concert. In
2002,
Dave Matthews Band released
Busted Stuff in response to the Internet-fueled success of
The Lillywhite
Sessions which they had not intended to release.
Queen are slowly releasing 100 bootlegs for
sale as downloads at their Online Store, with profits going to the
Mercury Phoenix Trust.
Although he is opposed to illegitimate recording of his concerts
Robert Fripp's DGMlive.com offers many
King Crimson bootlegs for sale as
downloads.
| Artist |
Release(s) |
Notes |
| Bob Dylan |
|
Eight official volumes |
| Emerson, Lake &
Palmer |
|
Multi-box set "official" release of commercial ELP bootlegs on
Castle Records, containing live recordings from 1970-1993. Includes
audience and soundboard recordings. Quality varies, but mostly
listenable. |
| Rory Gallagher |
|
|
| Iron Maiden |
|
A Real Live Dead One is the most similar "real" album for
that. |
| Elton John |
|
Radio concert album released in response to bootleg sales. |
| Led Zeppelin |
|
Material from three different 1969 sessions
and a 1971 concert from the Paris Theatre in London , recorded by
the BBC. Countless bootlegs of these
recordings circulated for years before the official release. |
| Morly Grey |
|
Illegal release on Akarma in 2002 of the Starshine Records
album. |
| Nirvana |
|
According to some collectors, a couple of tracks on With the Lights Out might have been
taken from an actual bootleg CD. |
| Pink Floyd |
|
Special features include Bootlegging the Bootleggers,
assembled from video provided by Pink
Floyd historian Vernon Fitch,
combined with official soundboard recordings, and edited together.
The bootleg of The Dark Side
of the Moon was issued a mere six weeks after the concert,
about a full year prior to an official release. Professionally
packaged, the unit reportedly sold in excess of 100,000 copies,
many thinking it was the real thing. |
| Mike Portnoy |
|
Portnoy founded the YtseJam
Records bootleg label, and is one of the most vocal pro-bootleg
musicians despite his band not having a clear audience taping
policy. |
| Elvis Presley |
- The Million Dollar
Quartet (1981-1990/2006)
- [FTD - New Year's Eve] (2003)
- [FTD - Closing Night] (2004)
- [Close Up Disc 4] (2003)
- [FTD - Takin' Tahoe Night] (2003)
- [FTD - Southern Nights] (2006)
- [FTD - Unchained Melody] (2007)
|
The Million Dollar Quartet session took place on December 4,
1956 at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The session was
performed by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl
Perkins. This was first released on bootleg in 1981 with only 17
tracks. It was released more times over the years until 1990 when
RCA released the copy of the tape which was owned by Elvis. 2006
saw the release of more of the session.
The New Year's Eve concert from 1976 was one of Elvis' longest
shows. This was release was an audience recording in 1977 as the
name of Rockin' With Elvis On New Year's Eve. It was a two
LP set and is considered as one of the best audience recordings. In
2003 the exact same source tape was used for the FTD/RCA release of
New Year's Eve.
The Funny Side of Elvis and The King Goes Bananas are
audience recordings from September 3, 1973 Closing Show in Vegas
that was release in the 90s. One of Elvis' most unusual concerts in
his career with Elvis clowning around on most of the songs. Most of
the soundboard of this show was release in 2004 by FTD/RCA under
the name Closing Night.
During the movie Elvis On Tour, Elvis did a show on April
18, 1972 in San Antonio, Texas. Three songs are seen in the movie.
This was release as a soundboard in 1993 under the name Welcome to
San Antone under the Vicky label but RCA release the stereo source
tape of this show on Disc 4 in the box set Close Up in 2003.
The show from May 13 1973 in Lake Tahoe was release sometime in the
90s as an audience recording but in 2003 the soundboard of the show
was release under the FTD/RCA label as Takin' Tahoe Night.
FTD release Southern Nights with many songs from various
bootlegs that comes from April, May and June 1975. The songs are
from Atlanta, Macon, Memphis, Houston, Lake Charles, Huntsville and
Mobile.
FTD release Unchained Melody has songs from some bootlegs
as well. One that stands out the most is Where No One Stands Alone.
This was the only time he sung that song ever. |
| Prince |
|
Studio album initially shelved in 1987 and widely bootlegged
since. |
| Deep Purple |
|
Scandinavian Nights (recorded in Stockholm in 1970) and several
other bootlegs of early Deep Purple performances have been
remastered and "officially" released by the Deep Purple
Appreciation Society and Purple Records, including Aachen 1970,
Montreux 1969, and the In Concert 1970/72 recordings, which were
taken from BBC Radio Broadcasts. |
| R. Kelly |
|
Kelly scrapped the original album due to bootlegging, recorded
several new tracks and released the album as Chocolate Factory. |
| Sex Pistols |
|
Bootleg of demos originally released in 1977, officially
released by Sanctuary Records in
2006. |
| The Smashing Pumpkins |
|
Released independently to fans on vinyl and the Internet as a
gesture of defiance to Virgin
Records. |
| Swans |
|
An early 1990s bootleg. Most other Swans live albums began as
bootleg-style recordings made by band members or crew. |
| Tangerine Dream |
|
Most included concerts were at some point released as
commercial bootlegs, but the released versions in these series are
based on the Tangerine Tree project.
Confusingly, two of the nine volumes in the Bootmoon series
(Cleveland and Brighton 1986) were however from the band's official
live recording archives, and also included in their "Vault" series
of releases. |
| Frank Zappa |
|
Remastered directly from bootleg discs. Zappa also copied the
packaging directly from the bootleg releases, adding no additional
material other than a cardboard box. |
See also
References
- Bastard-art-gallery
- Jordan, Keith. " T'Internet - A Bootleg Fan's Paradise" - The
Past, Present and Future of Bootlegs considering the internet.
NPF Magazine. November 2006.
- WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms
Treaties Implementation Act, Title 17, Chapter 1, § 109
(portions involving computer programs elided for readability).
Further reading
- Heylin, Clinton. The Great White Wonders: The Story of Rock
Bootlegs. Viking Press, September 1994. (ISBN 0670857777)
- Heylin, Clinton. Bootleg! The Rise & Fall of
the Secret Recording Industry. Omnibus Press, 2004.
- Thompson, Dave. A Music Lover's Guide to Record
Collecting. Backbeat Books, September 2002. (ISBN
0879307137)
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