What is a bootleg / ROIO?
The term bootleg originates in the smuggling world, where smugglers would hide contraband inside the long boots that they wore to escape detection by customs men. It gradually came to be used to describe any item with dubious origins (implying some kind of criminal activity), and eventually ended up as a convenient name for Unauthorized recordings, which were sometimes pressed up onto vinyl or CD and issued by obscure record labels, without the consent of the artist or the record company. These would take the form of live concert recordings, demo versions of tracks, and sometimes even completely unreleased songs by popular artists (as in the case of the first important bootleg, Bob Dylans Great White Wonder.) For more information on the history of bootlegs, check out Clinton Heylins excellent book Bootleg! which charts the history of unauthorised recordings from the beginnings right up to the 21st century. Bootlegging should not be confused with piracy. Piracy is the act of making (and
