Recording industry experts estimate there are bootleg tapes of every recording artist performing today. Probably all three, according to Simpson, an assistant professor of interpersonal communication at Ohio University, who has studied bootleg culture. Because bootlegging is secretive by nature, Simpson contacted his fellow bootleggers for the study by placing advertisements in newspapers and on the World Wide Web. He received about 20 responses from bootleggers or collectors of bootlegged tapes who wanted to tell their stories. Bootlegging turns it around.
People can go out and produce something of their own.
It gives them a quest for adventure and they actively involve themselves in a search for history. Some study participants described special tactics they use to distract security personnel, such as hiding a tape recorder in a sliced-open basketball strapped to a woman's belly to make her look pregnant. During his days as a bootlegger, Simpson sometimes wore an oversized jacket to camouflage a tape recorder slung over his shoulder and microphone wires that ran down the sleeves of his jacket to a microphone in his palm. Despite the claims of record industry officials who say they fear a loss of profit, Simpson says most bootleggers have no interest in selling their tapes. The thrill of slyly making the recording is part of the bootlegger's passion, he says, as is returning home to the VCR or tape deck and playing the tape over and over again in an attempt to relive a concert experience the bootlegger never really has.