Public Service Announcement: beware of counterfeit DVDs!

[WWWendy]

VFers must be increasingly vigilant when purchasing DVDs on the secondary market. There are increasing numbers of counterfeit copies floating around, many sold on eBay, some on the Amazon.com marketplace. Many very professional looking counterfeits have started to turn up on our video exchange, and the person trading the DVD may not be aware it is counterfeit. I have therefore assembled some tips to increase awareness here at VF about what pirated DVDs look like and how to avoid them in the first place.

If you are not 100% certain of the authenticity of a workout you own and want to trade based on what you read in this post, don't trade it. If you bought it on eBay, Amazon Marketplace or elsewhere and you think it's fake, report it to the site where you purchased it.

Identifying bootlegs:

There are a lot of bootleg DVDs, especially Cathe DVDs, milling about lately due to a number of eBay sellers selling pirated copies, many made in China, where it is inexpensive to produce very professional looking counterfeit DVDs that are difficult to distinguish from the originals. The following titles seem to be particularly popular with these bootleggers:

Cathe Friedrich: Power Hour+, Rhythmic Step+, Timesaver, Push Pull/Supersets and Hardcore Extreme are the most commonly pirated, but bootlegs of Cardio Kicks/Circuit Max and Bootcamp/Muscle Endurance are also out there.

Turbo Kicks and Body Pump: these are only officially allowed to be sold to certified Turbo Kicks/Body Pump instructors. Note that because of these restrictions, VFers are not allowed to trade these titles on the exchange. Les Mills actively pursues individuals and Web sites that try to sell/trade even legitimate copies of these workouts to third parties. Nonetheless, I'm listing them because many of our members may be seeking these titles on eBay, and many of those on eBay are bootlegs.

Turbo Jam At least one of these has shown up on the VF exchange, and it was very difficult to distinguish from an original.

NOTE If you would like me to add other workout DVD titles that you know are frequently pirated and sold on eBay, please drop me a pm or email so I can add it to the list.

Here are some of the confirmed differences between legitimate Cathe DVDs and the bootleg versions contributed by VFers Tammy T and kauaigirl, who have compared legal versions and bootlegs side by side and have consulted with the folks at Cathe.com. Cathe also has published some information on how to tell if a Cathe DVD is legit and what code #s to look for on this page on Cathe.com:

• Printing on inner circle This should be the first thing you check. The title and serial numbers should be laser-engraved/written on the read/write surface in a circle, but unfortunately, this is also true of the more convincing pirated copies. BUT on the bootleg DVDs identified so far about 3/8 inch from the center ring, there is also a series of letters and numbers engraved in a very small, fancy font style that reads ifpi W400. This is an indication of a blank disc manufactured in China. According to SNM, **NO** legitimate Cathe DVD will have this stamp. The only exceptions to this rule are the Cathe DVDs that were packaged with The Step and The High Step (High Step Circuit, Body Fusion, Basic Step and Basic Step Plus Cardio and Weights). These *will* have the ifpi w400 stamped on them. However, these will also (without exception) have "Made In China" printed on the back side of the insert on the lower left side. These are the discs with which SNM made arrangements for an outsourced mass pressing to be packaged with the steps.
  
• Artwork: On most of the bootlegs, the artwork on both the disc and the inserts is noticeably worse. The images are not as crisp and the colors not as true. They look almost slightly smeared. On others, the cover inserts on the bootlegs may be very high quality, like those on the original DVDs -- glossy, thick paper, with sharp text and pictures.
  
• Cases: The bootlegs may be packaged in white DVD cases, unlike the originals, which are packaged in black cases.
  
• Disc Quality: The bootleg DVDs feel more flimsy than the originals. They feel a bit lighter and thinner.
  
• Picture Quality: When you play the DVD and compare it to the original, the picture quality is a bit worse, not very obvious, but if you pay attention, you can see the difference.
  
• The read/write surface of those DVDs are all in silver color, which is identical to the original versions, not the purple color (not DVD-R), the tell tale sign of copied DVDs as we have been told.

General tips on avoiding counterfeit DVDs or identifying counterfeit DVDs:

• buy your DVDs from a reputable source or directly from the instructor who produced them.
• If the price sounds too good to be true, especially on eBay, it probably is. Be aware of the cost to buy the DVD new, as well as the price for used DVDs on sites like the YaYas swap. If an item is selling for far less than its market value that is a big red flag.
• the presence of Chinese characters anywhere on the DVD cover, on menus, etc. often is an indication of a fake.
• Check an eBay seller's feedback and auction history before buying. Even if the feedback is good, click on a bunch of the auction numbers to see what titles they were selling. Beware of eBay sellers who repeatedly sell the same few titles (usually high value and/or rare titles) over and over for below market prices. These sellers also may be selling DVDs of movies/shows/workouts that have never been available on DVD before, and those will always be fake.
• One EBay trick that sellers of counterfeits will use in order to sell multiple copies of a counterfeit DVD is to contact those who did not win the bid and tell them the the winner backed out would they like to purchase the item. They really have multiple bootleg copies of the same item.
• If a DVD is a single layer DVD, and the original is dual-layer, you have a fake. Any DVD program that analyzes discs for copying purposes can tell you how much data is on a DVD and you can then tell if it's a single-layer bootleg of a dual-layer original - the bootleg will only show 4.7 gb of contents, the true DVD will show much higher numbers, up to 7gb or more of data. A number of Cathe DVDs are dual-layer.
• Stay away from eBay listings for DVDs that contain multiple workouts on one DVD if the genuine workouts have never been sold in that format. Check the vendor's site to see what the real product looks like, though remember that some workouts have been repackaged with different covers and packaging one or more times since their original release. Feel free to ask questions on VF about whether a workout was ever released on DVD or what older packaging looked like.
• A disc that has a purple read/write surface on the reverse, rather than the standard silver, is usually a fake, though a few smaller companies who burn their own workouts onto DVD-R's may sell their originals on this type of DVD, or may have done so in the past. When in doubt, check with the instructor or distributor of the title. It is important to remember, however, that there are counterfeit copies that have the standard silver surface, so a silver reverse is not a guarantee of a legitimate DVD.
• Don't be afraid to ask questions of sellers of secondhand DVDs. Keep the responses to your questions in case you need to file a claim.

These Web links appear to have some good information on spotting counterfeit DVDs/sellers:

http://reviews.ebay.com/How-To-BECOM...00000000954388
http://reviews.ebay.com/WHERE-TO-FIL...00000001387718
http://reviews.ebay.com/BOOTLEGS-HOW...00000000997642
http://ebay.about.com/od/mistakestoavoid/a/ma_fakes.htm

If you have more useful links or tips to add to this list, email or pm me.

If you wish to trade a legitimate workout that happens to be on the "frequently bootlegged" list above, unfortunately you should expect increased scrutiny from potential trading partners, so be polite if you are asked questions about where the DVD came from. If you purchased your DVD from a legitimate source, such as Cathe.com or Collage, you may wish to indicate that in your trade listing. If you purchased on eBay or from an Amazon marketplace seller, be prepared to provide a link to the auction or listing where you purchased the DVD. Please understand that if someone asks you for details about where you purchased the item, that doesn't mean they are accusing you of knowingly trading a bootleg--since these fakes can be so difficult to recognize, they are just following the advice in this post.

If you are trying to obtain one of the titles that are frequently pirated, it is OK to (politely) ask the person with the DVD some questions about where the DVD came from, and to refer the person to this thread to explain why you are asking and how to look for clues for a bootleg if you find out the workout had been purchased on the secondhand market.

IMPORTANT: Anyone who unknowingly trades a counterfeit DVD will be asked to undo the trade if that has not already been done (both parties get their original workouts back). Anyone who KNOWINGLY trades a counterfeit DVD will be barred from participating on the Exchange.

Again, if you have reason to suspect a workout you own might not be a legitimate copy of the workout, please do not trade it on the exchange. If you suspect that you have received a counterfeit DVD in a trade, contact the other trader to find out where the DVD came from and to "undo" the trade if necessary. If you are unsure about one of your DVDs that you wish to trade, contact one of the exchange moderators and/or try comparing notes with a VFer who bought the same DVD new from a reputable vendor. You also might try to contact the instructor directly for tips on telling the difference between the genuine version and an illegal copy.

I hope this post helps to increase awareness about this problem. Please feel free to pass along any more information that you feel would be useful in helping our community members avoid pirated DVDs.

Thanks,

Wendy