Confessions Of An Internet 'Bootlegger'

[=[Euthanasia]=]

My name is "Stitch" and I'm a bootlegger. If that's what you want to call me. But I don't download albums from the net to sell. I'm not the guy with the table set up on 125th street with the fake full color CD packaging that looks just like the original. I don't have an "in" at the studio who supplies me with a digital perfect copy of the album along with bonus tracks which is duplicated at a full scale production operation.

Nah... it's for my own personal stash. Of course, I share my stash with my crew, and they share it with their peeps and so on and so on. Just call it "crew love."

And me and my crew get everything. Of course, we had Eminem's new joint like 2 months ago. And Jay's joint – my man copped the unmastered version of that one and downloaded it again once Jay tried to flip the script and change tracks on us.

It's not that deep if you know where to go and who to roll with. Yeah, Napster (RIP) was great, Audiogalaxy is all good and Kazaa is nifty to – but these are for the mainstream. It gets more hardcore than this. See, me and my crew, we get a rush from digging real deep and cracking *#@% wide open. Then, we stamp our name on that joint and send it out for the world to experience.

We hear all the talk from the RIAA and Hilary "Ho" Rosen about how bootlegging is bad business. Bootlegging is music industry business – how do you think this stuff is getting out there? It's the thriving, pulsating underbelly of American business – how do you think the Rockefeller's got rich? Dude, don't get it twisted.

These cats just don't understand. We do it for fun. We do it for the challenge. We do it for the people. Call us your "super-millennium consumer advocate." We believe that the consumer shouldn't consume unless he's consumed first and tasted the goods. They offer free samples in K-Mart all the time and nobody complains. We test drive cars before we buy them. We have sex before marriage to make sure the goods are in order. Sampling is the American way.

Hilary and the labels are anti-American. They're fascist. They want to shove this garbage music down our throats and pay radio stations to brainwash us. They want us to spend our hard earned money on a $20 album when we've only heard like 2 hit songs out of the 15 tracks. It's a recession damnit! People are unemployed! And we choose where we're gonna spend our dough.

Trying to "crack down" on bootlegging is like trying to stunt free will. Yeah, they might have killed Napster, and they might be suing Kazaa and Audiogalaxy, but they can't stop the hustle. And we already cracked those bullshit Music disc copyright protection schemes (Cactus Data Shield 100/200 and Key2Audio) by using a basic felt tip marker pen and/or electrical tape to cover up the outer ring of the audio disc.

The fact is that nothing can stop a movement once it's started. They couldn't stop British defectors from founding America, they couldn't stop the Civil Rights Movement and the "Free Music" movement won't be stopped. We forced the industry to push up Jay-Z and Eminem. They're just scrambling to keep up. But they'll never stop this.

The industry needs to stop blaming bootlegging for the decline in sales and focus on creating quality *#@%! If it weren't for bootlegging and the Internet, the music industry would probably be dead right now. Wake up... people aren't buying music because you're putting out garbage! That's as simple as it is.

Power to the people!

("Stitch" is a righteous 23 year old from Nevada who is part of a worldwide bootlegging crew called CMS. He "bootlegs" hundreds of songs on a weekly basis, but admits he bought Eminem this week to get the original album artwork and free DVD.)

(Source: sohh.com)


I wouldn't exactly call this guy a bootlegger, I mean he doesn't seem to sell the material he gets, he shares. If his friends sell the stuff he gives to them on then thats their problem, not his. I do the exact same as him, if I d/l a full album to sample (like I have done with Jay's, Em's, Nas' and so on) i'll still cop it when it drops for the official artwork and/or anything else it comes with IF I really enjoy the album.
Anyway, I thought this was quite an interesting read, and I know alot of people have gotten stuff from CMS here.

[doggmastah]

>= link=board=outbound;num=1023014001;start=0#0 date=06/02/02 at 05:33:21]My name is "Stitch" and I'm a bootlegger. If that's what you want to call me. But I don't download albums from the net to sell. I'm not the guy with the table set up on 125th street with the fake full color CD packaging that looks just like the original. I don't have an "in" at the studio who supplies me with a digital perfect copy of the album along with bonus tracks which is duplicated at a full scale production operation.

Nah... it's for my own personal stash. Of course, I share my stash with my crew, and they share it with their peeps and so on and so on. Just call it "crew love."

And me and my crew get everything. Of course, we had Eminem's new joint like 2 months ago. And Jay's joint – my man copped the unmastered version of that one and downloaded it again once Jay tried to flip the script and change tracks on us.

It's not that deep if you know where to go and who to roll with. Yeah, Napster (RIP) was great, Audiogalaxy is all good and Kazaa is nifty to – but these are for the mainstream. It gets more hardcore than this. See, me and my crew, we get a rush from digging real deep and cracking *#@% wide open. Then, we stamp our name on that joint and send it out for the world to experience.

We hear all the talk from the RIAA and Hilary "Ho" Rosen about how bootlegging is bad business. Bootlegging is music industry business – how do you think this stuff is getting out there? It's the thriving, pulsating underbelly of American business – how do you think the Rockefeller's got rich? Dude, don't get it twisted.

These cats just don't understand. We do it for fun. We do it for the challenge. We do it for the people. Call us your "super-millennium consumer advocate." We believe that the consumer shouldn't consume unless he's consumed first and tasted the goods. They offer free samples in K-Mart all the time and nobody complains. We test drive cars before we buy them. We have sex before marriage to make sure the goods are in order. Sampling is the American way.

Hilary and the labels are anti-American. They're fascist. They want to shove this garbage music down our throats and pay radio stations to brainwash us. They want us to spend our hard earned money on a $20 album when we've only heard like 2 hit songs out of the 15 tracks. It's a recession damnit! People are unemployed! And we choose where we're gonna spend our dough.

Trying to "crack down" on bootlegging is like trying to stunt free will. Yeah, they might have killed Napster, and they might be suing Kazaa and Audiogalaxy, but they can't stop the hustle. And we already cracked those bullshit Music disc copyright protection schemes (Cactus Data Shield 100/200 and Key2Audio) by using a basic felt tip marker pen and/or electrical tape to cover up the outer ring of the audio disc.

The fact is that nothing can stop a movement once it's started. They couldn't stop British defectors from founding America, they couldn't stop the Civil Rights Movement and the "Free Music" movement won't be stopped. We forced the industry to push up Jay-Z and Eminem. They're just scrambling to keep up. But they'll never stop this.

The industry needs to stop blaming bootlegging for the decline in sales and focus on creating quality *#@%! If it weren't for bootlegging and the Internet, the music industry would probably be dead right now. Wake up... people aren't buying music because you're putting out garbage! That's as simple as it is.

Power to the people!

("Stitch" is a righteous 23 year old from Nevada who is part of a worldwide bootlegging crew called CMS. He "bootlegs" hundreds of songs on a weekly basis, but admits he bought Eminem this week to get the original album artwork and free DVD.)

(Source: sohh.com)


I wouldn't exactly call this guy a bootlegger, I mean he doesn't seem to sell the material he gets, he shares. If his friends sell the stuff he gives to them on then thats their problem, not his. I do the exact same as him, if I d/l a full album to sample (like I have done with Jay's, Em's, Nas' and so on) i'll still cop it when it drops for the official artwork and/or anything else it comes with IF I really enjoy the album.
Anyway, I thought this was quite an interesting read, and I know alot of people have gotten stuff from CMS here.

Ya naughty boy!^^^(J/K)

Peace1!

[KVB]

It was an interesting read... I'd really like to know where he gets the songs from though.

Pz

[DJ_Jay_Deee]

It was an interesting read... I'd really like to know where he gets the songs from though.

Pz

He can't reveal his secret.

[Trauma-san]

The music industries going to have to change their entire way of how they do EVERYTHING if they want to stop bootlegging.  Either they learn to live with it (I'd say major, major releases probably lose 2 million albums to bootleggers... the marshall mathers cd would have sold 2 million more... I know because I see peeps at flea markets moving these in MASS units, each one was a sale that would have happened legit if the bootleggers wouldn't have been there).  

Either they learn to live with it, or they change how things are done, like for instance, making money off radio, or off videos, or lowering album prices to 5 dollars, or whatever.  As long as music can be HEARD, it can be recorded, and it can be bootlegged.  So, by nature, music will always be bootlegged.  They have to figure out a way for people not to want the bootlegged version.  

[=[Euthanasia]=]

The music industries going to have to change their entire way of how they do EVERYTHING if they want to stop bootlegging.  Either they learn to live with it (I'd say major, major releases probably lose 2 million albums to bootleggers... the marshall mathers cd would have sold 2 million more... I know because I see peeps at flea markets moving these in MASS units, each one was a sale that would have happened legit if the bootleggers wouldn't have been there).  

Either they learn to live with it, or they change how things are done, like for instance, making money off radio, or off videos, or lowering album prices to 5 dollars, or whatever.  As long as music can be HEARD, it can be recorded, and it can be bootlegged.  So, by nature, music will always be bootlegged.  They have to figure out a way for people not to want the bootlegged version.  

I think lowering the price would make a major difference (for the better), I mean some bootlegs go for about £5 anyways so the official release would be worth it to the ones that are only willing to pay that price (which ultimatly results in them copping bootlegged copies in the first place). Just look at it this way, it official releases were going for half the price they do now you could get 2 official copies of whatever albums you please for the normal price of 1, or 2 official copies for the normal price of 4 and so on. But also alot music has to step up in quality, like that guy said in the article, especially in hip-hop I think.

[Tanjential]

OH MY GOD, the answer to this guys source is at the top of this very web page!: Get mIRC and talk to us live in #WestCoastConnection on EFnet


mIRC gets shit waaay in advance and gets good ass quality cause it ties with ftp's etcetera,the reason mIRC is somewhat unknown because it's difficult to use,it's based on alot of code and command shit and it takes brainpower(that most aren't willing to exert) to utiliza effectively,mIRC is a good bet if you can mentally handle it..peace-Tanjint

[P Nelson]

:LOLL i thought u were the bootlegger...

[Trauma-san]

Um, yeah, mirc is a good source, but thisguy doesn't use mirc as a source.  Why, because he's the one breaking the stuff to mirc, on CMS... he's getting his way before MIRC, then ripping it and putting it on the channel.  

[=[Euthanasia]=]

Um, yeah, mirc is a good source, but thisguy doesn't use mirc as a source.  Why, because he's the one breaking the stuff to mirc, on CMS... he's getting his way before MIRC, then ripping it and putting it on the channel.  

Yup, thats true. His team are one of the main suppliers. Tanj: take a look at the stuff you've d/l or d/l in the future, you've prolly gotten alot of CMS goods from irc, I know I have.

[Cliche]

the kid who wrote that isn't a cms member, he's just some kid out for some net-fame... and since major news corperations are getting into that story now, cms stuff is going to be harder to come by.

[=[Euthanasia]=]

the kid who wrote that isn't a cms member, he's just some kid out for some net-fame... and since major news corperations are getting into that story now, cms stuff is going to be harder to come by.

I think it is true, but then again the net is full o' dodgy fucks, lol.

[Nino_Brown]

fuck bootleggers