Japanese CD - Is it a copy?

[kawahime]

I haven't yet found a store that sells a good selection fo REAL Japanese CDs. I feel like I've scoured all of Vancouver and the lower mainland and I've come out empty handed. Sure, there are tons of Asian stores in the Chinese malls of Richmond, but there's no way I'm going to support these store's copying of CDs.

How do you tell if the CD is original?? I'm thinking of buying CDs on Ebay, but can I trust the seller when they say that the CD has not been copied? I have seen a "copy protection" lable on some CDs, but what exactly does this mean? It upsets me so much when people just copy CDs just because they're cheap. Sure, I'm cheap too, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to break God's commandments because of it.

Diana

[ShiroiHikari]

Some "labels" to watch out for with anime soundtracks are Ever Anime and Sonmay. Those are both bootlegs. I know because I accidentally bought a bunch of them ; _ ; Also, look for poor print quality on the covers. See if you can't find a song list for the album online, and then if you can, see if the song titles and stuff match up.

Ebay you gotta be real careful with. If they don't have a scanned pic of the front and back of the packaging, I wouldn't risk it.

Edit: A site that sells genuine CDs and such is http://www.cdjapan.co.jp ^_^ They're imports, but at least you know they're real. It's not always cheap though.

[shooraijin]

Thanks for the warning about SonMay, I was browsing a few soundtracks "by" them last night ...

[kawahime]

Wow thanks for all the information. That really helps!

Diana