bootleg market

“People stockpiled it, fought in stores over it and even created a TP bootleg market! Commemorate 2020 with an ornament, the highest demand product, toilet paper!”

Because of complicated rights issues, Thom Andersen's 2003 docu-essay has long been seen only on the repertory circuit and bootleg market, but this year, for the first time, Cinema Guild made the film widely and legally available.

I traveled to the country this month, visiting a friend who’d spent two years learning Mandarin and commuting by heavy bike, and stumbled onto the bootleg market without even trying.

Two earlier and shorter versions were made from the footage in the 1960s but never formally released, although they made their way into the bootleg market, said film publicist Tracey Jordan.

This also accounts for the country's thriving bootleg market, where people can purchase DVD material that wouldn't otherwise be available to the public.