All three original editions have been counterfeited, and especially for the 'cartoon cover' counts that there probably are more fakes circulating than originals!

The 'drag cover' has been counterfeited twice, in Japan in the late 70s and in Italy in the early 80s. The Italian counterfeit is easy to expose, as it has a poorly reproduced sleeve that lacks the textured appearance of the original, and has a white rather than black record label. The Japanese counterfeit is a much better copy, but it can be identified by the slightly cropped photo's on the cover (on the front Bowie's feet touch the edge of the sleeve on the counterfeit, whereas they by far don't on the original) that also has a different texture (it uses wax to reproduce the original wallpaper-like sleeve), the spine (on which the album title and catalogue number have been inverted), and the record label (which is dark grey instead of black, with a silver edge that is absent from the original, and has R 1971 rather than P 1971, plus a space in the word BRO ADCASTING). Note that most books and even the Rykodisc reissue use a photo of the counterfeit!

The 'cartoon cover' and 'round cover' counterfeits too are clever copies, but these can be identified by hand-scratched rather than machine-stamped matrix numbers in the run-out groove. The original that was used for the 'round cover' counterfeit had traces of cellotape on its top, which have been copied onto the counterfeit.

Also see two pirate picture discs.

The original promo 12" (with live versions from Stage) is pressed on white vinyl, whereas this counterfeit uses black vinyl.

The sleeve of this counterfeit is in black and silver, rather than in the black and white of the original promo LP.

A clever copy of the US edition of Bowie's debut LP.

The song titles are not all mentioned on this disc, neither in the booklet, of which only the front and back are reproduced, nor on the CD itself. There also is a pirate CD from Bulgaria that looks much more professional. This pirate is identified by a black and white rather than in colour picture on the disc itself. See the official CD for several official limited editions.

There are at least three CD pirates—two from Russia and one from Taiwan. The first Russian release (top) is a well-done counterfeit of the regular hours... CD, but the booklet consists only of a single, folded page. The other Russian edition is more interesting, as it contains most of Young Americans (only 'Somebody Up There Likes Me' is missing) as a bonus. The Taiwanese pirate (ISRC CN-E19-99-457-00/A J6) is credited to Sabis Bowie (booklet) or even Sabis Bowic (spine and disc), but has a proper booklet including all lyrics.

Also see two unofficial hours... pirates on vinyl.

Let's Dance (Disconet Remix)/Blue Jean (Extended Dance Mix)/Dancing With The Big Boys (Extended Dance Mix)/Tonight (Vocal Dance Mix)/Tumble And Twirl (Extended Dance Mix)/Loving The Alien (Extended Dance Mix)/Don't Look Down (Extended Dance Mix)/This Is Not America (Disconet Remix)/Magic Dance (A Dance Mix)/Megamix.

At the end of 1985, EMI planned to release an album with remixes from Let's Dance and Tonight. The seven tracks on Dance (EMI ST-17175), Loving The Alien/Let's Dance/Shake It/Blue Jean/China Girl/Dancing With The Bigs Boys/Modern Love, were seemlessly segued into "an endless music mix" by Rusty Gardner and Paul Sabu. However, the idea was shelved and nothing but a few proof sleeves for the album's artwork ever surfaced.

In 2001 a CD called Dance appeared, but from the tracklisting and the catalogue number it is immediately apparent that this is just a pirate/bootleg. For the front insert however, the bootleggers used the artwork of the original proof sleeve.

In Russia, it is common practice to illegally reproduce official albums. Except for Earthling and hours... discussed above, recently also the US edition of The Best Of Bowie 1969/1974, All Saints and Christiane F. were counterfeited. These pirates carry the official catalogue numbers but are easily recognized by the poor reproduction of the artwork, which generally consists of a single folded page.

Chinese slipcase counterfeit with the official album plus the bonus disc on a single CD.

Several releases of Best Of Bowie probably best qualify as counterfeits. The Thai and Russian releases are identical to the German version. There are even two Chinese editions, the first (in a card sleeve) has CD1 of the UK release, the second has both discs.