This may be a little precarious, but you could always try flogging something else to make up for your lost profit, like bootlegs for instance.

pirating music on a commercial level will screw you for 46K and limit your job prospects to convenience store clerk / fast food specialist or if you're lucky, warehouse grunt.

this whole 'education' thing strikes me along the same lines as forcing a drunk driver to speak to high school students about the dangers of getting behind the wheel when your sloshed. difference being that a drunk driver speaking to kids in person will have the emotional aspect to his 'education' that will help reinforce a message that should really be common knowledge at this point. a really long post on the internet is just a bunch of words.

^ My thoughts exactly.

For the life of me, I can't imagine why on earth he has to do this kind of thing as part of a court order.

don't sell bootlegs.

The biggest crime here is how that first post could have been one paragraph.

Yeah...I got that message, but posting the bleedin' obvious on a music forum isn't going to make a blind bit of difference really.
Unless we have some bootleg pirates amongst us that have suddenly seen the light!?

I agree. This probably counts as one of his ways of educating people for the courts to observe.

Hmmm. I find this a bit strange. I can't believe for one minute that you ever thought bootlegs were legal. Ignorance of the facts is no excuse - certainly not when you decided to invest in a sh*tload of equipment. Certainly as your bootlegging empire expanded I'm sure you became fully aware of the legalities of what you're doing.

The moral of the story? If a scheme to make a load of cash looks too good to be true, then it probably is. Especially if you're pretty stupid to boot...

What did you expect?

This is the internet , you did something stupid. Of course people find it funny.

I find it hard to believe you thought you were doing nothing wrong. I mean surely the word BOOTLEG was a bit of a clue.

And if you were sneaking recording equipment into shows I also find it hard to believe you never questioned the fact WHY you had to hide this recording equipment on your way in. Do you think bands do it just to be assholes?

But to be honest I have the feeling your entire story is total bullshit and you were well aware of what you were doing. Either that or you are the most stupid & naive person on earth.
If you were just some kid who burned a few shows off to share with your friends maybe i'd have some sympathy. But you had the know how to start an entire bootlegging racket and made thousands , and quite honestly I don't see how someone could have the knowledge to something to make that much money and not be aware of the legal standpoint.

Sure I became aware and Im not making excuses for it. I only said that when I got into it, I wasnt aware and it was my fault for not researching the laws better. Everything just kinda snowballed from my senior year in high school and I became too reliant on the income I was making.

These boots were made for trading, and thats just what you'll do, one of these days those boots will land you with a 46k fine and a point that we all know already.

Many thanks to Nancy Sinatra for lyrical guidance.