Bootlegging Trader Evicted From Australian Con

Date: 2005 October 05 20:29

Posted by Jeremy

A trader was evicted from an Australian anime convention on charges of bootlegging, harassment, and misleading prices.

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Anime News Network has reported what could be a first for the Australian anime community. Cartoon Passion, a trader dealing at the Melbourne Anime Festival (aka Manifest), was evicted from the traders' hall breaching the festival's trader rules of conduct. This occurred on Sunday, September 25th, the last day of the two-and-a-half day convention, at approximately 9:50 am Australian Eastern Standard Time. It is the first documented case of such an eviction at an anime convention, in Australia or anywhere else in the world.

According to an official statement issued by the Manifest Organizing Committee (M.O.C.), Cartoon Passion was found to have been harassing at least three attendees of the convention (M.O.C. representatives are requesting that anyone else who may have felt harassed to step forward), as well as selling bootlegged merchandise and misleading prices of items by pricing them in U.S. dollars but then giving a recalculated price in Australian dollars. Cartoon Passion had been given two prior warnings during the course of Saturday trading before they were finally evicted.

Selling bootleg material is frowned upon in Australia and New Zealand, and all conventions held in both countries currently have official policies prohibiting the sale of such material. Traders are also prohibited from harassing attendees or mislead pricing as stipulated by law and other various contracts.

At present time, Cartoon Passion has not given any comment in regards to the eviction. They have been in previous trouble with Supanova Expo's Brisbane Show back in April of 2005, when the show enforced its own anti-bootleg policy against the trader. The penalty consisted of a partial confiscation of bootleg material and a final warning issued to the offending party.