every con in the land takes a very very hardline take on bootleg. the genreal line that they all take is this, if you sell bootleg stuff on there own turf and under there nose, you will be nailed to wall, as per the house rules. the result will be that (in animina's case) you may be blacklisted by madman or by other groups.

I like to think SMASH! has the strictest bootleg policy of any anime convention. We make it clear to prospective vendors when they register with us that we reserve the right to determine what is and what isn't a bootleg on the day and with vendors who we're not confident about we ask to inspect their merchandise before the day. This way we can do our best to make sure it's not even an issue.

I think we did a pretty good job in 2009 and in 2010. Let us know if you spot anything, though. It always helps :)

@mike, do you think my remarks are fair???

As one of the official bootleg spotters for SMASH!, I assure you we take this matter seriously. SMASH! has a strict anti-bootleg policy which is enforced to the best of our ability through screening against vendors who have offended in the past (We did not invite Hobby Dream back this year), and checking merchandise stocks to remove suspected items.

As Mike said, if you do see anything on the day though, let us know :]. Things can slip through the cracks and attendees might spot something we've missed.

I think it is important to know that in addition to what Mike has said we also attend conventions as fans as much as we participate in running them. As such we have an opportunity to see vendors who attend other conventions and the kind of stock that they bring. Sometimes witnessing vendors who have an overabundance of bootleg material has lead us to actively deny applications from vendors attending the convention, simply because we do not want that sort of merchandise at our events.

That said, there are some people who apply that we've just never heard of and we cannot make a judgment about the legitimacy of their stock until it is inside the venue. Once it's here though we do our best to inspect that stock and determine if anything should not be sold. We reserve the right to determine what is a bootleg and whether the vendor is allowed to sell that stock.

Companies attend SMASH! based on a signed agreement that understands the above and should they fail to comply with the conditions we have laid out we will have no hesitation in removing them from the convention.

Animania have received plenty of complaints over the years about bootlegs, yet their bootleg policy is even more lax this year than it was the last.

Go figure.

HAH. TAKEN FROM THE ANIMANIA FORUMS, POSTED BY SOMEONE FROM MADMAN:

"Madman do not support events that knowingly allow the sale of bootlegged merchandise at their events and don't enforce their own policies that say they don't allow the sale of bootleg items at their event.

Madman will be more than happy to support and sell at future Animania events if we are guaranteed these bootleg vendors don't come back and all NEW bootleg vendors are dealt with in an appropriate way."

Isn't there a Universal Blacklist that all Australian Conventions share?