bootleg

“I love bootleg merch,” she said, adding, “It can be better than the original artist’s design, because fans sometimes know what fans want more than the artist.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026

This is not new: authorities in Vietnam perennially and publicly bust bootleg vendors to show that they are doing something about the country's ubiquitous shadow economies.

From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026

Various deluxe editions also come with bootleg recordings from a 1975 concert, concert films on Blu-ray, a hardcover book with never-seen photographs, a comic-book tour poster and more.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 7, 2025

Look for X’s John Doe as a purveyor of bootleg caviar.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2025

Bolo was friends with this white kid and fellow pirate named Daniel, who traded in bootleg CDs.

From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah

Many of the tracks, including Fugitive's Dream and Don't Back Down on Our Love, have circulated on bootlegs for years, but will finally be heard in studio quality.

From BBC ● Apr. 3, 2025

“The Basement Tapes,” as they were eventually called, were among rock’s first bootlegs before being released officially — in part in 1975, and in a full six-CD set in 2014.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 9, 2023

Stream much of Season 1 to 5 free on Pluto; bootlegs of individual episodes are easy to find online.

From New York Times ● Jan. 31, 2023

Jackson, who originally saw the movie years removed from that 1970 context, and who as a teen listened to bootlegs like “Hahst Az Sön” that revealed the pleasure the Beatles took in jamming together, agrees.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2021

Two waggons ahead of them there walked a man wearing a long reddish-brown coat, a cap and high boots with sagging bootlegs and carrying a whip in his hand.

From The Bishop and Other Stories by Constance Garnett

But a growing number of fans say a crackdown on bootlegged merchandise is hampering that spirit.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026

Hildebrandt said that a decade ago, dental students in her classes “were basically giving each other thumb drives with bootlegged copies of the head and neck.”

From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2024

In the salons I went to as a child, I remember men peddling bootlegged movies and fashions to the clients with their hair wrapped or freshly sheened as they dug for cash in their purses.

From New York Times ● Nov. 13, 2023

Atlanta’s young quarterback, Desmond Ridder, bootlegged for a 6-yard touchdown on fourth-and-4 with just under 12 minutes remaining.

From Washington Times ● Sep. 17, 2023

I wish I could stop one of them and give them sage advice about the future and bootlegged exams.

From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali

Ryan Coogler’s bootlegging, Southern vampire blockbuster is smart, ambitious, original and masterfully executed — a classic best picture contender.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2025

To combat the bootlegging, his team chose to persuade major retailers to buy scrunchies from them rather than seek damages through litigation.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 19, 2022

Such ostentatious displays of wealth helped place Olmstead’s bootlegging racket in the crosshairs of the Seattle Prohibition office, which moved all its manpower and resources to take him down as quickly as possible.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 8, 2021

This week, more than a century later, officials in Clark County, Idaho, announced that Joseph Henry Loveless, the bootlegging escape artist, had been found.

From New York Times ● Jan. 3, 2020

“What could be more dangerous than a fake quarantine and a town-sponsored bootlegging operation?”

From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool