A Bootlegger sells items, originally alcohol, without permission and avoiding tax or other duties – which makes them cheaper and so popular. These days a bootlegger is best known for making copies of music or films and selling them without correct permission and so without paying any royalties due. The idiom was first recorded in the mid-19th century and applied to those who sold illegal liquor to Native Americans in the Far West. The sellers would ride out to the reservations with thin bottles of alcohol concealed in their riding boots and so quickly became known by the authorities as “bootleggers”. The phrase then travelled across to the UK and became applied to anyone involved in counterfeit activity.