Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[Neon Rabbit]

I'm quite certain those are bootlegs. I've never seen them before but they look pretty bootleggy to me based on the quality of the box printing.

Also, As far as I'm aware of, There has not been a stand alone DVD release of any of the first 6 Star Wars films on DVD since 2008. After the original book style Blu-Ray set came out in 2011, the only DVDs that have ever been available at retail since then are the ones that came in the separate Trilogy combo packs that were released sometime later.

[StingingVelvet]

There are bootlegs all over ebay because most consumers don't care as long as it's cheaper. I had an argument once with a guy on my Doctor Who forum who knowingly bought bootlegs of every season because they were cheaper and looked "the same" (despite twice the compression). I told him they were illegal and gave no money to the creators and he laughed at the idea of caring about such things.

[crissrudd4554]

I know this doesn't exactly prove the set is or isn't bootlegged but here's an Amazon.com link

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01HE...ID=512YdS-D6PL

[Fredluos]

Strange that Ebay allow bootlegs to be sold. And doesn't FBI intensely hunt down such illegal business? And aren't the sellers running a high risk of being thrown in prison? Star Wars The Complete Saga is after all major package, and there is a lot of money involved in the sales.

[dubious]

Originally Posted by Fredluos

Strange that Ebay allow bootlegs to be sold. And doesn't FBI intensely hunt down such illegal business? And aren't the sellers running a high risk of being thrown in prison? Star Wars The Complete Saga is after all major package, and there is a lot of money involved in the sales.

Ha, are you kidding. They don't even have enough manpower to track every person on the terrorist watch list, thus bad things happen. FBI is over tasked, and piracy is one of their least concerns unless you're the head of a major bootleg consortium, they aren't putting resources to busting average home duplicator reselling on ebay. The best the FBI can do is makeup a few flashy anti-piracy scare screens and give them out for free, but there hasn't been any will to back up those threats for decades.

[Neon Rabbit]

I don't think these ebay bootlegs are home duplications, they are mass produced in Chinese factories.

I know alot of the public doesn't realize how sophisticated bootlegs can be. In the past when I've pointed a bootleg out to family members or friends, they just think I'm crazy even if I point out the identifying traits. To alot of people, A Bootleg or Counterfeit just means someone copied something onto a DVD-R and printed out the artwork on their home printer. If it has shrinkwrap on it and professionally pressed disc art, to them, it's real even if there is no documented retail equivelent, or it includes noticable typos, infactual information printed on the packaging, or if it bundles films together that aren't from the same studio, ect.

A friend of mine's wife wanted him to order some ridiculously cheap box set of Disney movies, probably over 100 or more titles, some of them not even remotely Disney related. For the price, the amount of content, and the ridiculously cheap looking packaging it should have been obvious to anyone that it was a bootleg, but I made sure to advise him that it was a bootleg and not to wast his money on it.

[dubious]

Originally Posted by Neon Rabbit

I don't think these ebay bootlegs are home duplications, they are mass produced in Chinese factories.

Yeah, and it's not unlike any other bootleg product coming out of China. You can just as easily pickup counterfeit Rolex (pretty good quality for $150 ), designer handbags, knockoff perfumes, etc.

[stvn1974]

I bought a bootleg of the Beatles Mono CD box set from a seller on ebay. They refunded my money. The first give away was the constant misspelling of "MCartny" plus the discs all played in stereo. I have also ordered what I thought was a US copy of a BD set because of the pic used but later received the Canadian version. Nothing against Canadians or the French but I don't want French on my packaging. Gotta be careful on ebay.

[Neon Rabbit]

Disney titles are also notorious for being heavily bootlegged. Most of them are very good quality and are hard to spot to the average consumer.

I actually had a DVD copy of Ratatouille in my collection for years before I realized it was a bootleg. It was factory sealed and everything when I bought it on Amazon from a marketplace seller close to or within the month it was released. I only ever noticed it when I finally joined Disney Movie Rewards and went through all of my DVDs that I knew should have had reward codes. After realizing there was no code inside the case, upon closer inspection I noticed the lettering on the case was fuzzy and the printing looked off. Later a friend of mine brought his copy over to directly compare and I realized it was fake.

I guess I never looked at it that closely before because I had just assumed a Disney/Pixar movie that recent wouldn't have had widely circulating bootlegs already flooding the market so it never entered my mind.

[motorheadache95]

I remember about 10 to 12 years ago this guy I knew from work lent me his bootleg Star Wars trilogy DVD set because I wanted to see if they had the original versions on them. The first film was the original, and Empire and Jedi were both the 1997 Special Edition versions. All 3 were in pretty crappy non-anamorphic widescreen, so they were probably from fan-made laserdisc rips.

[CinemaBlu]

Originally Posted by motorheadache95

I remember about 10 to 12 years ago this guy I knew from work lent me his bootleg Star Wars trilogy DVD set because I wanted to see if they had the original versions on them. The first film was the original, and Empire and Jedi were both the 1997 Special Edition versions. All 3 were in pretty crappy non-anamorphic widescreen, so they were probably from fan-made laserdisc rips.

I don't think that was a bootleg. Lucasfilm DID release the unaltered original trilogy 10 years ago and they WERE non-anamorphic laserdisc rips.

[motorheadache95]

Originally Posted by CinemaBlu

I don't think that was a bootleg. Lucasfilm DID release the unaltered original trilogy 10 years ago and they WERE non-anamorphic laserdisc rips.

I specifically remember this was before those came out, plus only the original movie was the UOT, the other two were the 1997 versions (that's how it came in the set he bought!).

The box looked pretty nice though-- it had the poster covers from the Special Editions on the covers, and it looked professional enough. Definitely a bootleg though.

[ck19]

The Wire DVD boxset was heavily bootlegged on ebay a few years back.

[Chiyo_chichi]

Originally Posted by Fredluos

Strange that Ebay allow bootlegs to be sold. And doesn't FBI intensely hunt down such illegal business? And aren't the sellers running a high risk of being thrown in prison? Star Wars The Complete Saga is after all major package, and there is a lot of money involved in the sales.

There's others have said, there's just so many bootleggers, it's almost impossible to stop them. That being said, I believe if you get a bootleg unknowingly, you can take the fight to Ebay (more specifically, Paypal) and you'll be in favor of a refund.

[-RONIN-]

Up to Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith of my annual Star Wars summer viewing. Will do the original trilogy over the weekend. We all have our opinions and mine is that of enjoyment for the prequels. I still have no regrets over my purchase of the Saga when it was released on BD. Love it.

[LeeFanatic007]

Originally Posted by -RONIN-

Up to Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith of my annual Star Wars summer viewing. Will do the original trilogy over the weekend. We all have our opinions and mine is that of enjoyment for the prequels. I still have no regrets over my purchase of the Saga when it was released on BD. Love it.

I grew up with the prequels and loved going to see them in theaters, I had discovered the originals a few years before the Special Editions came out and I've been a rabid fan ever since.

Upon my rewatch last year of all the films I really disliked The Phantom Menace for the first time. I always enjoyed Clones and Revenge though.

The Force Awakens blew me away upon initially seeing it opening night but that was the thrill of seeing a new Star Wars movie. Later pondering it I agree that it was a little too heavy on rehashing elements from the original film.

But I love all the Star Wars movies and will continue to watch them for years to come.

[-RONIN-]

Originally Posted by LeeFanatic007

I grew up with the prequels and loved going to see them in theaters, I had discovered the originals a few years before the Special Editions came out and I've been a rabid fan ever since.

Upon my rewatch last year of all the films I really disliked The Phantom Menace for the first time. I always enjoyed Clones and Revenge though.

The Force Awakens blew me away upon initially seeing it opening night but that was the thrill of seeing a new Star Wars movie. Later pondering it I agree that it was a little too heavy on rehashing elements from the original film.

But I love all the Star Wars movies and will continue to watch them for years to come.

As I get older I find I'm less and less critical of movies and just watch and enjoy them for what they should be. And that is entertainment and an escape from reality for a short period of time. The only time I'm overly critical now is when I go to the theaters but that's just because it costs so much in my area now. Otherwise, in my home viewing, I'm a pretty easy going moviegoer.

[Fabs]

Originally Posted by LeeFanatic007

The Force Awakens blew me away upon initially seeing it opening night but that was the thrill of seeing a new Star Wars movie. Later pondering it I agree that it was a little too heavy on rehashing elements from the original film.

But I love all the Star Wars movies and will continue to watch them for years to come.

This is exactly why I can't stand TFA. It's not only that it rehashed elements. Most of its scenes, themes, and even some shots are recycled completely. For all the grief everyone gives the prequels, and they aren't good, at least they are different from the Original Trilogy.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by Fabs

This is exactly why I can't stand TFA. It's not only that it rehashed elements. Most of its scenes, themes, and even some shots are recycled completely. For all the grief everyone gives the prequels, and they aren't good, at least they are different from the Original Trilogy.

The rehashing you can thank Disney execs and JJ for. They wanted to play things totally safe.

That's probably why reshoots were required by the higher ups on Rogue One... too different, too adult. It was supposed to be like a WWII or Korean or Vietnam war story in space and more gritty and raw.

Disney definitely doesn't want to take a risk.

[octagon]

Thank you Disney execs and JJ.