"The two most popular companies that have pirated FF CDs are SonMay (SM) and EverAnime (EA), both of which are in Taiwan. SM has been around for some time. EA seems to have popped up back in late 1999; I remember the first eBay auction I saw of an EA FF CD (got all those acronyms? ^_~). It was of Grand Finale, and I seriously thought it was an original. After that, EA became very widespread.
Now why, you may ask, are Taiwan companies pirating CDs? Here's the situation in a nutshell, most of which is from my own cursory research, so if I've got some details incorrect, please email me, preferably with a link to the Website from which you got your info. I will correct my information once I verify the accuracy of the details you send me.
There is a treaty, called the Berne Convention, between certain countries resulting from a series of conventions that was first held in 1886. It's called the "Berne" Convention because the treaty was first signed in Berne, Germany, in 1886. Successive conventions have updated and revised the treaty, and I believe the latest revision is dated 1979. These conventions hold that a copyrighted work in one member country will be recognized by other member countries. The owner's copyright lasts for his/her lifespan plus 75 years after his/her death. (I believe current U.S. law holds that the copyright lasts for only 50 years after death; I'm not sure if the law was changed.) I believe that at last count, 96 countries had signed the Berne treaty.
Taiwan and China did not sign the Berne Convention and so were not bound by its restrictions. Therefore, in these countries, it was legal to reproduce a person's work (including music, books, software...) without having to go through the legal channels of getting a license, paying royalties to the creator, etc. This is why bootlegging and piracy are rampant in Taiwan and China.
However, so I am told, Taiwan and China joined the World Trade Organization in November 2001, and the WTO has strict rules about intellectual property and copyrights. What does this mean? It means that Taiwan and China are now obligated, under WTO rules, to outlaw piracy and crack down on it.
One thing that must be made clear is that the Berne Convention is, strictly speaking, *not* a part of the WTO. The Berne treaty existed before the WTO (the WTO was established in 1995). However, according to the WTO website, the WTO's rules on intellectual property are stricter than those laid out in the Berne Convention.
This, to me, presents an interesting dilemma. If a country signed the Berne Convention but is not a WTO member, then that country follows rules that are supposedly more lax. Of course, this is a moot point if all the Berne signees are also WTO members (but do you realize how amazingly difficult it is to find on the 'Net who signed the Berne treaty?! It's incredible...).
With all that said...I first encountered bootlegs when I bought the FF6 OSV. I inadvertently bought the SM version. I didn't think much of the issue, because they were the first VGM I owned, and I wasn't even aware that there *was* an issue. (And, as I have discovered, that is how most other people learn about the issue, as well.) Then I came across the original Japan release, and to say the least, I was stunned. I let a friend listen to both releases, and he came back a few weeks later saying that the SM CDs sounded slightly inferior, but that was because he'd played them on a really good sound system. For most of us, who use regular CD players or boomboxes, it probably won't make much of a sound difference.
Pirate game soundtracks! Check your discs!
The strange thing is that eBay, Amazon, and even sometimes reputable places like gamemusic.com allow the sale of these pirated works. And it's not even remotely in question that they're 100% illegal to sell outside of Taiwan and China, yet still the flow increases of the pirate soundtracks every week! There are also other smaller pirate companies pirating game and anime soundtracks (such as Alion and others) but SonMay and Everanime are the biggest.
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