[Delirium-Zer0]

They didn't. Any Ho-Son or King HK release is gonna be best described as a bootleg. Even in places where bootlegs aren't strictly speaking illegal, if it doesn't say avex (or Nippon Columbia ), the money isn't going to ayu.

Nick's description at eneabba.net of the Ho-Son bootleg is REALLY kinda foggy and unclear, and I think it's the source of alot of confusion over whether it's a bootleg or not. He kinda presents it as an official release that just went wrong, but it's not. It was never official, it's a bootleg same as any other Ho-Son release. They're often sold in otherwise well-regarded stores (The Past & Other Side of Ayu was sold on yesasia.com for a short time), but that's just cuz they promoted themselves as respectable. They do alot of anime soundtracks too. Anime fans are often told to avoid them, but since they don't do a WHOLE lot of jpop releases, jpop fans don't hear the name of this company as often.

To be safe, just don't buy anything released by any of these companies, by ayu or anyone else:
Ho-Son
King Records (Hong Kong) (most of their stuff is just the HK versions of Ho-Son releases)
Smile Face
Alion International
Miya Records
Son-May
Ever Anime

Son-May, Ever Anime, and Alion International are actually all the same company, so. You can bet that all three are no good.