[-=Masakari=-]

I think a FAQ that teaches people what bootlegs ARE and how to recognize them would be better. It would serve the purposes of informing people of the dangers of being ripped off by bootlegs, instruct them on how to recognize and avoid buying bootlegs when they're looking for actual professional DVDs and also not advertise any particular bootlegging site. In general, I've found the simplest ways of recognizing bootlegs (in terms of HK DVDs at least) to be:

* They're listed as Region 0.

* They have English and Chinese subs, but no English dub. ALL anime DVDs that I've ever come across that have Chinese subs are bootlegs.

* They contain many more episodes per DVD than professional releases; usually 8 or more.

* They're advertised as the 'International Release' or 'Official Asian Release.' Both of those are commonly used by bootleggers who try to convince potential buyers that they're getting something professional.

* The cases have the 'stamp' of one of the major bootlegging companies. Freak knows more about this than I do but the most common ones I've seen is a green capital 'M' or a red capital 'A.'

Also note that HK DVDs will often have very attractive and professional-looking cover designs, in contrast to the usually sub-par job done with the actual anime. I joke with Freak that my HK DVD box of Neo Ranga looks better than my R1 box of it... So 'it looks professional' is really not a way to determine whether something is a bootleg or not.

Of course things like bootlegs of fansubs, which usually just consist of .avi files burned onto a CD or DVD, are much easier to recognize.