Back in from Motor City Con — and a unique convention experience it was, in a lot of ways!
It was great to get to talk with fans of my comics, and it was good to catch up with my friends in the industry. I also got to meet a lot of folks I'd only known as names on the computer screen — like Dave Dorman — or faces on the TV screen, like Tony Dow, John Wesley Shipp, Lisa Loring, and (Millard from my Faraway Looks series would be so proud!) Charlene Tilton.
The big surprise, of course, for me as, I imagine it was for everyone else there — came on Friday, with the sudden introduction of the Long Arm of the Law into the assembly center, in search of videos on behalf of the movie and recording industries. This is a topic I've opined about in the past, but in this circumstance, being in the thick of it, I quickly reverted to my reporter roots and began asking questions. The result was a midnight post from the hotel on CBGXtra.com, which turned out to be one of the first news pieces about the event, along with pix by Jim Johnson. (Thanks for everything, Jim!)
In case anyone hasn't seen it, this was what I posted for CBG — joint copyright, I guess, since I was at the show on vacation. And lest we all forget — in the long run, this was basically a blip on what was a terrific show. I really appreciate the hard work of the organizers — and especially their patience, during and after all the craziness went down!
Novi, Mich. (CBG) -- State and local police, accompanied by investigators from the recording and film industries, conducted a major anti-piracy raid of video dealers at Motor City Con on May 19, seizing pallets of videos and escorting several dealers from the floor.
In what has become an increasingly familiar occurrence at American pop culture conventions, undercover agents from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) entered the convention's new home at the Rock Financial Showplace early on opening day, visiting the booths of dealers selling DVDs.
Around 5 p.m., Michigan State Police, assisted by members of the Novi, Mich., police, raided an estimated 14 different booths in the hall, according to Con Promoter Michael Goldman. Novi officers were seen leading four dealers from the floor in handcuffs, and police said 10 additional dealers were escorted to police headquarters.
Dealers were not arrested, but instead brought to the station to provide statements and officially surrender certain merchandise, one such dealer returning to the convention said. Several booths were back in business before the end of the day, police keeping any items on their warrant. Dealers who reopened told CBG police were targeting both films and certain television recordings they suspected of being bootlegged. Some dealers never actually closed, as police targeted a number of dealers for whom videos were a small part of their merchandise. One retailer had only 20 videos on his table, his partner said.
Officers had been prepositioned to cover various ends of the large hall, a Novi officer told CBG -- and rolling pallets were brought into the hall to remove videos that were on their list of suspect items.
The sudden appearance of uniformed officers and agents wearing RIAA apparel in the hall -- and the subsequent searching and complete removal of entire booths -- attracted attention throughout the hall, and convention staffers fielded questions from many attendees.
Motor City Con 2006 has more than 200 dealer booths and more than 250 creator and media guest tables -- and while the number of raided booths was small, they were spread across the long hall, making the raid visible to most attendees. Convention officials said this is the largest Motor City Con in the show's 18 years.
Goldman told CBG that the Motor City Con exhibitors' agreement clearly forbids the display or sale of bootleg items. A similar raid previously occured at Wizard World Philadelphia.
JJM's UPDATE, 5/23: Well, I sure didn't expect this little adventure would result in the highest-traffic day in the site's history by far, but that's what it did. (Hey, and speaking of intellectual property, could all you folks reposting the photos from here please credit Jim Johnson? Thanks!) Anyway, now that I'm not sitting in a hotel lobby, I can add a few more notes.
Again, I was not attending in the role of a reporter, so there is an element of hearsay here; all I can say is that what I heard I did hear from dealers, organizers, and investigators.
• Why here? Several dealers and insiders I spoke with said they had been told that a video dealer under charges in another municipality had "flipped," directing police to four specific dealers at the convention. Then, once in the hall, the RIAA had the police expand the search to include ten other dealers, some of whom had very small amounts of merchandise relative to their other wares. The officers I spoke with on the scene did not confirm or deny these reports. Another source said one of the RIAA's few field offices is in Detroit.
• Both film and TV programs were apparently targeted. Looking at items that were left on shelves after the raid — and allowed to be returned to shelves later in the day — many speculated that, either owing to the limits of the MPAA's bailiwick or perhaps something in the warrant, TV programs and anime weren't targeted in the raid. But a source closer to the investigation said there was actually a "hit list" of specific items that did include some prerecorded television programs. (Since many of the same studios that make films also own TV content, that makes a certain amount of sense.) And contrary to one of the rumors that circulated, I must say that on my several tours of the room before the raid took place, I did not see any visible signs of any "in-theaters-now" films on DVD. I obviously can't swear there was no Da Vinci Code or the like in the room somewhere, but there were no blatant displays such as I've seen at other shows "back in the day," when one might see new releases playing on TV screens in booths.
• Local TV showed up, but didn't make it into the room. At least one local TV station did a report on the raid from the scene on Friday, but the cameras remained outside the actual assembly center. There did not appear to be local newspaper coverage immediately afterward, either — the Detroit News running a "Holy Comic Con, Batman!" piece on Saturday touting the Batman TV show anniversary celebration and making no mention of the arrests. (Actually, as of this writing, there still doesn't appear to be anything in the Detroit News about it.)
• Tempers flared. Right at the beginning of the raid, CBG columnist Jim Johnson and I were standing at the booth of one agitated dealer who was in a heated discussion with a plainclothes officer over whether the state had a right to look inside his booth. The dealer contended that, as he was subletting the space from the convention as an agent of the Rock Financial Showplace, that space thereby became his "store," and thusly the state would need a search warrant specifically for that -- as opposed to one for the entire center.
The officer was adamant, saying that if the dealer didn't cooperate, the entire booth would be impounded -- as happened elsewhere (as seen in Jim's images of comics boxes and all being carted away). The dealer called his lawyer and finally assented, shutting down the booth temporarily. His partner reopened the booth later in the evening, shifting merchandise displays to compensate for the material that had been removed.
• It was a Friday phenomenon. Because of the reopened retailers altering their displays — and because of neighboring retailers claiming the booth space of retailers who did not return to set up — there was no way on Saturday or Sunday for a newcomer to tell that anything had happened on Friday. Except, possibly, in that the selection of video merchandise was thinner...