Professional Companies That Started Off Super Shady

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

Today Mill Creek Entertainment puts out licensed physical media releases that sometimes are even better than the versions of the same content the big studios they license from first put out.

But I remember when they first started and had all those 10+ movie packs. The movies were mostly public domain, but some grey market and flat out copyrighted (oops) stuff made it’s way into some sets. Worse for the consumer though was that many (probably most) films look like they were cleaned up with sandpaper and acid before they were transferred to disc.

Now Mill Creek still put out some multi-film sets, but everything is licensed or public domain. And it looks like at least some quality control is put into finding decent looking versions of the films (some stinkers still get out, but I think even the latest Mill Creek multi-film set I have is a few years old).

[Push R Truth]

I remember seeing a couple of the super early UFC cards, like 94/95 ,and thinking it was some wacky back alley kinda shit that was illegal except in international waters.



Look at it now.

[Ultimo Gallos]

Something Weird Video started off as a bootlegger. Making bootleg copies of films that were either not out on VHS or out of print. Then David Friedman found out and worked out a deal with Mike Vraney to license a pile of his films to SWV.

Now they only put out stuff that they got the rights to or stuff they are sure is Public Domain.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Lanard Toys started off making the notorious Gi-Joe clone Corps! line back in the 80s and now make officially licensed Aliens, Predator and other movie lines. Trendmasters started out as a bootleg company too, until they got the Voltron license in the 90s.

Argonaut software got their start working with Nintendo after illegally reverse engineering the Gameboy to sidestep their copy protection. Codemasters, likewise, produced unlicensed NES carts for Camerica, the Aladdin Deck Enhancer and the Game Genie. I know both made software for 8 bit home computers too, but shady stuff made them international players.

[G✇JI☈A]

Volkswagen - was started out as a con by the German Nazi party to build a national and affordable automobile for the people of Germany. Hence the name is a mix of the German words for ‘people’s car’ ..

Said it was a con, cause it essentially was. They built the factories but this “People’s Car” was never intented to go into full production.. Instead they made weapons of war.

Post WWII. After the Nazi’s were defeated. West Germany decided to bring in this “People’s Car” concept cause the economy of course was really bad and an affordable family car was needed at the time. They even used the prototype which was designed by Ferdinand Porsche.. That car became the VW Beetle

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

Jan 23, 2024 4:39:02 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

Lanard Toys started off making the notorious Gi-Joe clone Corps! line back in the 80s and now make officially licensed Aliens, Predator and other movie lines. Trendmasters started out as a bootleg company too, until they got the Voltron license in the 90s.

Argonaut software got their start working with Nintendo after illegally reverse engineering the Gameboy to sidestep their copy protection. Codemasters, likewise, produced unlicensed NES carts for Camerica, the Aladdin Deck Enhancer and the Game Genie. I know both made software for 8 bit home computers too, but shady stuff made them international players.

So remember next time grandma buys your kid’s SwabBill BlueShorts, she’s not making a mistake. She’s helping to grow a small business.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

AMD got their start doing things like making a shady reverse engineered Intel 8080 clones, then became a licensed second source for Intel chips as it was required for Intel to get military contracts. They made licensed 8086 family chips under license until Intel tried to screw them over, went to court and won then kept on making their own 86 compatible chips then their own Pentium equivalents and so on.

Until the Snes, Nintendo had the habit of using slightly altered cloned CPUs for their consoles, which were a legal gray area. The Gameboy used a just about legal Z80 clone, the Nes used an MOS 6502 clone, which itself was an upgraded sketchy clone of the Motorola 6800.

[An Dog On An Skateboard]

Jan 23, 2024 11:55:38 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

AMD got their start doing things like making a shady reverse engineered Intel 8080 clones, then became a licensed second source for Intel chips as it was required for Intel to get military contracts. They made licensed 8086 family chips under license until Intel tried to screw them over, went to court and won then kept on making their own 86 compatible chips then their own Pentium equivalents and so on.

Until the Snes, Nintendo had the habit of using slightly altered cloned CPUs for their consoles, which were a legal gray area. The Gameboy used a just about legal Z80 clone, the Nes used an MOS 6502 clone, which itself was an upgraded sketchy clone of the Motorola 6800.

This isn't too far from how a lot of Japanese guitar companies became well known in the west. In the seventies there was a whole spate of often very accurate and high quality replicas of Fender and Gibson guitars made in Japan, some of which surpassed the quality of the brands they were ripping off, that resulted in lawsuits from those companies; Billie Joe Armstrong's blue Fernandes Stratocaster is probably the most famous individual "lawsuit guitar". Some of those companies like Tokai and Fujigen ended up manufacturing guitars for the bigger companies, whereas some like ESP and Ibanez changed tack, began manufacturing their own designs (as much as any guitar manufacturer does) and ended up quite successful and highly regarded.

[chrom]

Jan 22, 2024 14:25:23 GMT -5 Push R Truth said:

I remember seeing a couple of the super early UFC cards, like 94/95 ,and thinking it was some wacky back alley kinda shit that was illegal except in international waters.



Look at it now.

When it first started, UFC was maybe a step above bum fights.

Now it's two steps

[MolotovMocktail]

Would WWE count? It started out as a hole in the wall pro rasslin’ territory called the WWWF (albeit with the New York market), and is now a major entertainment company that has arguably finally achieved mainstream acceptance.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Jan 23, 2024 19:30:31 GMT -5 MolotovMocktail said:

Would WWE count? It started out as a hole in the wall pro rasslin’ territory called the WWWF (albeit with the New York market), and is now a major entertainment company that has arguably finally achieved mainstream acceptance.

They were still super shady decades after Vince took control, steroids, pedophillia, rape allegations, a generation of former employees dropping dead before the age of retirement, company money being used to pay Vince's victims to keep quiet...

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Richard Branson built the virgin empire out of cheating workers at a Student magazine out of ownership and selling illegally imported records to evade the taxes every other retailer were subject to.

[karl100589]

Facebook started as a way for University horndogs to rate how attractive their fellow students were.