Forum - View topicNEWS: Merchant Evicted from Australian Event
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discofever
Posts: 5 |
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this may have been the first time a stall has been kicked out for selling bootlegs at manifest, but stalls have done it in the past.
Even after being reported, the committee didn't do anything about it. |
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Cosmic Kath
 Posts: 17 Location: Australia |
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If the guy didn't want people asking for prices, he should have put proper price tags on his merchandise. As for the "rabid" otakus, if he has a problem with them then he's definitely in the wrong business!
If there were legal pencilboards and and stuff at conventions, then it would be dealt with. Because the dvds are sold where official (hence usually more expensive) copies are also available, the anime companies are usually directly losing out. Because legal pencilboards aren't widley available here, the sale of them isn't robbing a legit market. And yes, you'd only be stupid to sell those at a con. Like this guy did.
Dude, customers complained about him too. If he had such killer prices, they would have just put up with it. |
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RedComet
 Posts: 227 Location: Virginia |
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It seems to me that it's kind of funny that all the Australian cons were where Cartoon Passion had trouble at when it's happening no where in the US. Also the name of the con is Melbourne Anime Festival. Not animation.
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Starwind Amada
Posts: 981 Location: Easton, PA, USA |
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Wow. What a total b!tch. I bet she goes to her classes and tells kids to cheat on their homework so they at least get it done.  Stupid moron complains when others have bootlegs, yet her anime collection is probably full of 5th generation VHS fansubs and HK DVDs.
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burning batsu
Posts: 3 Location: Auckland, New Zealand |
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Cartoon Passion has appeared at Armageddon Expos in New Zealand as well, and have been found by a few people I know to be selling bootlegs at the expos.
The organisers have been alerted to this and I was told they are keeping a close eye on them at the next expo (due in just over 2 weeks) |
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championferret
 Posts: 765 |
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Cartoon Passion were meant to be appearing at Animania this Saturday...wonder if this means they arent.
Personally I think it serves him right. Last year, he was charging $30 for a Tokyo Mew Mew keyring that still had its 300 Yen sticker on it. (not too smart to leave its original price on, seeing as the majority of the anime fans could work out that they'd be paying at least AU $4 for the keyring only to ask to confirm the price and have him say '$30' matter-of-factly) On that note, he did seem rather rude, and didn't give my sister her $8 change from a $10 note when she bought a pencil board, plus seemed to ignore her when she tried to get his attention to alert him of his 'mistake'. |
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Caloris
Posts: 33 |
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Cartoon Passion first appeared in Australia for Animania 2004. At Animania (Sydney), they were found selling bootlegs and using USD price tags. A number of people reported the stall to the Animania committee and nothing was done about it.
Early this year, Cartoon Passion sent out an email to all the Australian anime related conventions (anime.au, Animania, Manifest, WAI-Con, AVcon and Supanova) stating that they had opened a small warehouse in Sydney and would be interested in attending the local conventions. Their next appearance was in Brisbane at Supanova in April. At Supanova they were also found to be selling bootlegs and as a result had a number of boxes worth of bootlegged merchandise confiscated and destroyed. Their next appearance was at Manifest. At Manifest, Cartoon Passion had learned from Supanova and was mixing bootlegs with legitimate merchandise. They were warned twice on Saturday regarding bootlegs, the items in question were moved elsewhere within the stall, but were still visible for sale. The prices were marked in US dollars instead of Australian dollars and he was manually converting the prices at a rate more favorable to him. At the time, 1AUD = 0.77USD. Cartoon Passion was converting at around 1AUD = 0.70USD. A number of times he harassed attendees, at one point grabbing an item purchased from another store and demanding the MOC warn the other store for bootlegs. It was later proven that the item from the other store that he was claiming as a bootleg was in fact legitimate. Manifest had a number of people available to check if any suspicious items were bootlegs or not. Throughout Saturday trading, the MOC were checking all stores for bootlegs and other breaches of contract. A number of stores received warnings. The other stores headed those warnings and followed the directions of the committee, Cartoon Passion didn’t. The traders were told to be there at 9am on Sunday to open at 10am. Cartoon Passion arrived at 9:45am. After another check of merchandise, MOC along with University of Melbourne security explained to Cartoon Passion that they were being evicted and why it was happening. After a brief argument, the store started packing up, very slowly. It took Cartoon Passion less then an hour to set up on Friday night, it took almost 2 hours to pack up. The traders area was unable to open until he was gone, so the other vendors, the attendees and the convention itself were put at a disadvantage due to the actions of Cartoon Passion. Cartoon Passion, Shin Tokyo, Ta Market, Japan Book Plaza and Madman were all given warnings for breaches of contract. Only Cartoon Passion continued to breech the contract on a number of issues. As it stands now, Cartoon Passion is attending Animania in Sydney next weekend, Supanova in Sydney the week after and Armageddon in Auckland the weekend after that. It remains to be seen if they have learnt their lesson. |
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Caloris
Posts: 33 |
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Bootlegs are a very large problem in the US. It just seems that most conventions over there don't want to enforce the law. I've been to three US conventions this year. I'd have to say that at least 70% of the stalls there had bootlegs of some kind. |
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RedComet
Posts: 227 Location: Virginia |
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No I meant to say that US conventions never enforce against bootlegs. |
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Caloris
Posts: 33 |
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Well, now that a US company has been booted out of a convention for bootlegs, the US conventions will take note of this and say that yes, they can enforce their policies. Hopefully this will be a wake up call to both companies and conventions. I think this might be the first time any company has been kicked out of a convention for bootlegs ever. |
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BrianRuh
Posts: 162 Location: West Lafayette, IN, USA |
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Actually, US companies have been taking a much harder stance against bootleggers in recent years. See http://animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=5188 for one such example. And I have to say that I've seen a marked decrease in bootleg DVDs and CDs at US cons in recent years.
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burning batsu
Posts: 3 Location: Auckland, New Zealand |
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Regarding Armageddon, thankfully we have a moderate-sized group of people that know their DVD's well enough to know bootlegs who will be keeping a close eye on cartoon passion as well as the organisers themselves. I'm just hoping that if they ARE found to be selling bootlegs they will be evicted.
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Arrow
Posts: 2 Location: Australia |
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I was there in Brisbane and he was charging about AU$50 for bootleg Sailormoon artbooks. Maybe that lights your 'fantastic pricing' fire, but I was appalled. My friend checked out a few of his other artbooks and many of those were also bootlegs and also ridiculously priced. Unfortunately, from the outside it was almost impossible to tell for the everyday fan, but as it was about half the thickness of the legit book, didn't have the clear rice paper at the front and the print quality was shocking inside, it wasn't that hard to tell for someone who knows. I can just imagine how disappointed those people were paying legitimate prices for shitty bootleg quality. I've also seen a few seriously upset/angry people who have accidentally bought his wallscrolls or CDs thinking they were legit and were almost in tears because they just didn't realise what they were buying and made the mistake of trusting his stall because it was at a convention. 'Didn't make a thorough investigation of his goods' my butt. I've been to a few cons with him now and I always check out his stall and it ALWAYS has bootlegs. I have also seen him repeatedly refuse to follow orders to remove his bootlegs by surreptitiously selling bootlegs on the side or under the table after he has been ordered to stop. I wasn't at Manifest, but I sincerely doubt much has changed. I'm also curious as to where you are getting the 'jealous rivals' part from. From my point of view, if he's screwing over the fans, who needs him? I wouldn't be surprised if other stores didn't like him, since he is cheating the system and stealing their sales with illegal bootlegs, but honestly, I DON'T need to see another 13 year friend's face crumple when I tell them that they just spent most of their hard-saved con money on a bad-quality, overpriced bootleg, especially when the legitimate copy is $3 more expensive at the next store. It's freaking disgusting.
Well if other people are selling bootlegged items then I guess they can look forward to being evicted next time. And I don't think we'll be mourning their loss, either. Unfortunately, the good old 'other people are probably doing it so it must be OK!' argument doesn't hold much value with me. You follow the damn rules or you pay the price. Anyone repeatedly bootlegging at the cons is eventually going to be caught and chastised. Tough luck for them, but from everything I've seen and heard about Cartoon Passion, they deserved it. There's a trader's contract for a reason, and I find it hard to believe that they haven't been repeatedly warned about the hard line that most Australian cons are starting to take on bootlegs. Last edited by Arrow on Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Steventheeunuch
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Hehe, what did they do? |
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Arrow
Posts: 2 Location: Australia |
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...They were bootlegs. Trust me.  I really doubt Manifest organisers are going to call a vendor up on bootlegs unless they are 110% SURE about the item, seing as both their money and reputation are on the line. It's not that hard to tell a bootleg the vast majority of the time either, especially if it is lacking (c) symbols and you are familiar with the original article. Given his history and repeated eyewitness accounts, I'm just wondering where you are finding this doubt. Logically:
1) We know he sells bootlegs. It's easy enough to check his website and find that out. 2) We know he brings bootlegs to conventions. 3) We know he SELLS bootlegs at conventions. 4) We know selling bootlegs at conventions is against the rules. (I mean, it's also ILLEGAL, but let's leave that out of it for the moment.) 5) We know he has continued to sell bootlegs at conventions despite the fact that he has been asked not to, it is against the rules, and he has signed a legal contract saying that he will not. Therefore, he deserves to get his ass kicked out of the convention. Because he has broken the rules. I don't know about this harassment thing, although if people were actually complaining to organisers about it, it must have been worth noting. I DO know that the US prices he uses are misleading and he does tend to add up things in his favour. I can say that from my previous experience with CP, and those of my friends. So all in all, where exactly do you want to give him the benefit of the doubt?
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