Odex — having your cake and eating it too

UPDATE 20/11/2007: Note to foreign readers. This article is about Odex’s local copyright enforcement actions that took place in Singapore in mid 2007. This is not directly related to its latest international efforts. Please refer to here for discussions on the latest development.

Here is my summary of what I think of Odex’s grand scheme to dominate the local market in one daring move, and why I think they will fail terribly and spoil it for the rest of us. As some of you may or may not know, I met with Peter Go, director of Odex, twice before and had some discussions with him long before the start of the on-going fiasco (after he read my letter). At that time, I promised him that I would not reveal anything that was said during our private conversations, so I shall honour that promise. Not that I have a need to, now that Odex has shown its hand and everything has been made public. Anyway, just hoping to clear up some FUDs that have been making their rounds in every single forum thread on the topic.

Anti-Video Piracy Association of Singapore (AVPAS) is not affliated to the government.
Never was, never will be.

Odex is the sole active member of AVPAS.
Although Odex is inconspicuously in the middle of the member list of AVPAS, it is not too much a stretch to say that AVPAS is essentially Odex and not much more. Basically it’s like how music labels use RIAA to redirect the bad publicity away from their brand names, except that Odex is failing horribly at it because they were too lazy to create a letterhead for AVPAS and decided to use their own instead. Big mistake.

Odex is not, and has never been, the dominant proliferator of anime in Singapore.
They may be the one with all the licensing rights, but exponential growth of anime’s popularity seen locally was not their doing. Odex VCDs and DVDs have never received the level of acceptance and respect given to R1 DVDs by the American anime community. With or without BitTorrent.

Odex employees download fansubs.
According to various personal blogs belonging to related individuals. Or just common sense. I mean, the only reason why those people are working for Odex is because they are anime viewers. Where do almost all Singaporean fans get their anime fix from? Hint: it ain’t packaged in silver. Are their employees being issued similar letters?

Not all the AVPAS titles are licensed for local distribution.
Although Odex is the only active member of AVPAS, it does have the consent of the Japanese studios to act on behalf of them. Odex is empowered, through its own creation AVPAS, to defend the copyrights of these studios, whether or not the works in question are licensed for distribution by Odex. This can be said to be very unfair because many of the items are not legally available in Singapore except through expensive parallel importing and the actual damages done by illegal downloading to Odex’s business is therefore zero for these particular titles. Still, it appears that Odex does indeed have the right to represent the interest of those Japanese studios and thus it is within their abilities to sue for certain titles that they do not hold the distribution rights for.

The Japanese studios are not directly involved.
As far as I can tell, the Japanese studios did not initiate this. They probably do not care about what Odex does since Singapore is an insignificant market to them. From what little information is available, it appears that AVPAS was created initially to target commercial bootlegging, for example in 2004 they won a case against a local retail chain to raid their warehouse. This suggests that the Japanese studios authorized Odex to represent their interests so as to fight what they perceive to be commercial piracy. Whether or not this authorization is now being misused by Odex for their own agendas is highly questionable.

Odex did not send any warnings.
When a local blogger first mentioned in passing that Odex was going to take legal actions, they denied it and refused to comment on it. Then one day the letters started flying out of the blue and immediately started to demand money. This really makes one question Odex’s intention.

As a private entity, Odex cannot file a criminal suit.
Although they mentioned “fines of $10,000 per item and imprisonment of 5 years” in their letter, Odex can do nothing of that sort. They can launch a civil suit against you and if they win they can claim damages incurred. But they cannot force the relevant authorities to press criminal charges against you. That is up to the government to decide.

Neither can Odex prevent any criminal charges.
Even if you pay Odex their $3,000 or so, there is nothing to stop the government from pressing criminal charges against you. Copyright infringement is a criminal offence in Singapore. Odex can do nothing to interfere with that. In fact, even if they promise not to sue you themselves, there is nothing that legally prevents them from reporting you to the relevant authorities. In fact, it would be illegal for them to make such a promise.

Odex claims $3,000-$5,000 settlement is for legal and tracking fees.
With 1,000 subpoenaed IP addresses per ISP for SingNet, Starhub and PacNet, we end up with exactly 3,000 IP addresses being affected. Let’s very generously estimate that PacNet manages to appeal successfully and protect the identity of its subscribers and that 1/3 of the addresses are either duplicates (due to dynamic IP assignment) or otherwise unsuitable for Odex’s purpose (e.g. employees, friends and/or relatives). We are still left with about 1,300 or so targets. Let’s assume that everyone only has to pay, on average, $3,000. That is a total of 3.9 million dollars we are talking about, and that is the low end assumption. It can potentially be twice as much if you change a few variables.

According to this The New Paper article, Odex enlisted the help of a US company in tracking BitTorrent downloads. It doesn’t take 3.9 million dollars to run a bunch of servers to auto-scrape at regular intervals every torrent file posted on AnimeSuki and TokyoTosho using their RSS feeds. As for legal fees, Odex mailed their letter using their own letterhead and, from the accounts of people who received the letter, there is no indication that a lawyer was present during their meetings with Odex representatives. Which means that Odex only had to pay for at most legal advices, if anything at all. Certainly not worth 3.9 million dollars.

All that money has to go somewhere. I wonder where…

Odex has already paid all the necessary fees.
At least, that seems to be a logical assumption, since people don’t work for free. In other words, Odex created this elaborate scheme to instil fear, uncertainty and doubt into fansub downloaders, but they don’t want to have to pay for it themselves. So now they are asking you to pay up. They want to have your cake and eat it too. Also, what happens when they have collected enough to make back their original investment? I doubt it was anything more than $100,000, unless people really do pay millions(!?) of dollars for someone to scrape torrent trackers, in which case I shall end my rant here because I have a company to start up. After making back their investment, will Odex cease this futile fear mongering or will they earn some profits while they are at it? Have they already earned back their investment? I think there are a lot of questions in this area that need answering.

Odex does not have a foolproof case in court.
There is little precedence to work with, but there are many holes in their argument. The only evidence they have of your infringement is the IP address, which may not be enough. Various people have also reported that they were turned away when they went to talk to Odex with a lawyer, which is an indication that Odex is uncertain about the validity of its claims. At least one person was advised by his lawyer to ignore the letter and delete all the things he downloaded. So far Odex has not taken any actions against him. If more people refuse to pay up, Odex may be forced to either sue someone to make an example of him or to give up on this whole endeavour. If they do sue, there is no guarantee of victory and it is very hard to guess how much damages the court will award even if they win. It may even be less than $3,000-$5,000.

You are not guilty until proven so in court.
You are not obligated to show anything to Odex just because they send you a letter. You do not have to admit to anything and you should not incriminate yourself. Ask them for all the evidence they have against you. Ask them to explain clearly how each piece of evidence proves their claims. Ask them for a breakdown of the payment and why the amount varies from person to person, especially since they claim that it is supposed to be for the fees they have incurred. Do not sign anything. Seek legal advice if possible.

Odex is attempting to launch a Video-On-Demand service.
Prevent people from downloading and then launch their own service. It seemed like the perfect plan. Unfortunately, it was delayed (perhaps indefinitely), leaving people with nothing but an empty “under construction” page. Also, consider the next point…

The Odex brand is permanently tainted.
Who is going to utilize a VOD service if Odex does manage to get it up eventually? The same teenage anime fans that are defacing pictures of Stephen Sing, the other director of Odex, on HWZ now? Somehow, I don’t think so. Mr. Peter Go also mentioned in the TNP article that Odex sales fell 50% in 2006. Well, who’s taking bets for 2007? In the unlikelihood that sales actually improve, it can only be attributed to market demands generated by certain pyrotechnic displays. Seriously, I have bought Odex VCDs before and now I won’t ever again. How exactly was this supposed to be a response to poor sales again?

My General Paper teacher read about this in the papers and he thinks that Odex is just being greedy.
This is the first time my teacher has heard of Odex. His opinion is that if Odex was really working for the public good, they should have given sufficient prior warnings. It’s very sad when such an unpleasant undertaking becomes your company’s sole source of publicity for most of the population who has, until now, been completely oblivious to your existence. Contrary to the popular old saying, there is such a thing as bad publicity, especially when you are trying to sell something.

Most other forms of downloading are not affected.
HTTP, FTP, IRC, video streaming sites and a whole lot more. BitTorrent just so happens to be easily monitored due to every torrent file having its own tracker and swarm. But no US company is going to be able to log your HTTP downloads without violating some much more serious laws. While P2P file-sharing networks are vulnerable, they are much less so than BitTorrent due to the different nature in file distribution. Ultimately, this crackdown will only serve to increase the popularity of crunchyroll and similar video streaming sites, which is indeed a terrible prospect for those of us who somewhat value video quality, but does nothing for Odex’s stated goal of fighting illegal downloads.

Well, that’s a lot of typing. Maybe I’ll update this when I think of more things.

This entry was posted in Anime, Rant and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

247 Responses to Odex — having your cake and eating it too

  1. Sleepy Pig says:

    Well, I, for one, think that the whole episode isn’t very good for the Anime community in general. The Straits Times obviously wrote a biased report and have managed to villify the Anime community and classify everyone here as illegal downloaders who send out death threats.

    To me, anime fans always are willing to support copyright owners and content producers. This has been the way Anime clubs and fansubbing in general coexisted with corporations and content owners everywhere else in the world. In several Anime clubs I was a member of in the US, we regularly pull fansubs off distribution once a local company has licensed them. In the meantime, we regularly ask for permission to these companies for each club screening we are about to conduct every other week. None of the companies has ever denied us doing these screenings (i.e. Viz, Bandai, etc)

    Literally, Anime fans grew out of grassroots efforts to enable the Japanese content owners enter the American market. None of the Anime companies that grew in the U.S. like Viz and Animeigo grew without their founders and staff being members of anime fanclubs who screen fansubs in the first place. Bandai would’ve never came to the US like they did without the proliferation of so many small startup companies bidding to license their content for distribution in the US.

    The main point here is that what AVPAS and ODEX is doing is wrong.
    Even if ODEX/AVPAS is hiding behind a legal curtain, what this episode has taught us is that what is legal is definitely not ethical, just, nor right. Their approach, which was unfair, secretive and heavy handed, is the same as the way the government campaign against the crime of the month, by villifying and setting examples of those doing wrong, then using their own SPH to move public opinion their way, except that this time, the anime fans are paying for their negative PR campaign.

    In turn, the anime industry and Odex themselves are paying for it. Everyone hates Odex and their enforcers.

    I imagine that the Singapore Government, if they are smart, do not want to be associated as the villain who sues 9-year olds $5K for downloading content they would be willing to pay for anyway if asked nicely. The Singapore government would be very happy however, to be positively associated with us fans who really actually support content producers by buying legally licensed content.

    The problem is, the AVPAS website is promoting the MP who heads it, and Odex’s and AVPAS’s actions are, as they said, a PR disaster. AVPAS (supported by IPOS) or ODEX itself is to blame for the ugly situation by alienating the very consumers that have the very potential to make the anime industry thrive.

    In other words, it looks like AVPAS has killed ODEX and anime fandom in general in Singapore.

    So what should we as good anime fan citizens do?

    I think it’s clear that the message being sent out is that AVPAS and Odex value money as their barometer of right or wrong, and being legal doesn’t mean being ethical.

    So what can the fans do?

    1. Don’t support ODEX with your money anymore. Never buy Odex for as long as you live, or until Odex repents.
    Talk to your local retailer, explain to them that Odex products are crap, and encourage them nicely not to sell Odex products anymore. Point out to them that Odex can be suing the retailers next for that imported pirated anime if it is not from Odex so it is better not to deal with Odex or anime in general, and refer them to legal anime providers abroad; i.e. Amazon.
    Talk to your friends not to buy Odex.
    Give flyers about the Odex fiasco in front of stores that sell Odex products.
    It is better for Odex and/or it’s creation AVPAS to be bankrupt and have no local legal anime in Singapore the short term than deal with such a company with no moral or ethical foundations in the long run.

    2. Support your local anime club. Contribute to promote legal copies of anime – Belong to an anime advocacy group that promotes the legal purcase of anime from other sourcese than Odex. i.e. Pool resources to buy licensed anime products directly from the US or Japan; we can also contribute to help the Film commissions board to rate the anime for the rest of the fans who buy legal copies.

    3. Maybe talk to your local MP and ask them why a corporation like Odex who has licensing monopoly in Singapore can get a special interest organization like AVPAS, whose only beneficiary in singapore seems to be Odex, be endorsed by an MP. If they’re a supporter of AVPAS, you can always vote for the opposition. And you can always ask them why AVPAS’ message is not to promote the adoption of buying legal content, but suing the heck out of the consumers and your well-meaning average citizen.

    4. You can legally buy pirated copies of Odex products outside Singapore, let’s say when you go to JB. For every legal anime you buy, you can also try to buy a legally pirated Odex copy in JB and throw those CDs away. This will give money to the syndicates in Malaysia to produce more pirated Odex property, which could have gone to legal Odex copies if they hand’t been so obnoxious in Singapore.

  2. LianYL says:

    @Konaha
    You mean ‘objective’ manner? Isn’t mugging fun.

    @AnimeFreak
    LOL That comment wasn’t even targeted at you.

  3. LianYL says:

    Okay I am confused by this new comment system. Maybe it was set in place to ward me off.

  4. Lawyers says:

    Hi all,

    A same case related to Odex’s Case.
    Must READ and YOU KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FACTS!
    Is kind of long but READ for your own good and defend.

    http://digitalmusic.weblogsinc.com/2006/08/07/the-riaa-vs-john-doe-a-laypersons-guide-to-filesharing-lawsui/

    http://info.riaalawsuits.us/howriaa.htm

    http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/

  5. chappy says:

    @Lawyers: Fark. Damn this whole law system… No wonder Yagami Light decided to take the law into his own hands. With a law system so corrupted in it’s practices, it makes the world look like shit.

    Just because I’m not court to defend myself means I’m automatically guilty? God damnit, that’s sick.

  6. Ryen says:

    Legal Conspiracy
    In the legal letter that was sent to the downloader stated “we have been authorized by various Japanese animation licensors and members of the Anti Video Piracy Association (Singapore (“AVPAS”) (as Listed in APPENDIX A annexed hereto) to represent them in connection with the protection and enforcement of their rights in their Japanese animation titles.”

    Questionable legal action from Singapore legislation arised, since Singapore ISP disclosed privacy information to ODEX. AVPAS as an individual body that ODEX represents is a conspiracy as evidence found on both AVPAS and ODEX website were registered under the same company.

    Legislation HOLE
    Does that mean that any “tom, dick or harry” person could setup a similar AVPAS(company, association, organisation) and said that we represent that AVPAS body in pursue of legal action and damages that you had incurred to them?

    Concrete Evidence
    Using WHOIS to check on the both parties AVPAS(avpas.com.sg) and ODEX(odex.com.sg) – [http://whois.domaintools.com/]

    [Editor: WHOIS info cut to save space. Anyway, the relationship between Odex and AVPAS has been discussed many times over and even in my blog entry above. It’s not completely untrue to say they are the same entity, but there is a slight difference.]

  7. Shiro says:

    @AnimeFreak Yes…sadly, it will only may make matters worse as it will portray this community as immature and make us lose our credibility. And we must have the credibility if we want to make our stand.

    Remember what the paper wrote regarding Mr Sing…They mention about the threat etc and portray US as immature,but they didn’t focus much on the excellent investigation conducted by our fellow comrades.

    I hate quarreling and it sickens me to see how we argue here…Internal squabble will only widen the drift and give the enemies chance.

  8. chappy says:

    @Shiro: Ya… That’s kinda crap. If those guys were to have a bit more sense and not sent those death threats, it wouldn’t make us look this bad.

    Those immature guys… These people aren’t scared of us… And with those death threats, it makes him look more victimized then ever…

    Kids these days…

  9. winterfrog says:

    Latest development in talks between fans (or rather, a single fan) and
    Odex:

    http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=179331

  10. Odex is Lame says:

    Update: http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=179331

    A number of questionable statements if you read through everything.

    A friend brought up a point. If Odex is catching based on IP address, if someone go to Macdonalds uses an external network adaptor, connects to the net and download. The IP tracked would be Macdonald’s of course. Does that mean Macdonalds has infringed copyright laws too and need to pay Odex $5k?

    Then again Odex would probably want $50k or more since it’s Macdonalds.

  11. AnimeFreak!!! says:

    @Odex is Lame: CRAP if that is so then all the cafe in singapore doesn’t provide any more free service such as this!

  12. AnimeFreak!!! says:

    @Epleleven: it’s not odex that is lame… they are just greedy

  13. JS says:

    HTTP for the win!

  14. dKiWi says:

    @Shiro : Yupz I never ever suggested to delete LianYL’s post, just that if he doesn’t want us to poke at his post he shud juz email DM lorz.

    I used to be a FPS game server admin and in handling TK (Team Kill) and TW (Team Wound) issues we never deleted forum posts, no matter how out of hand it got so as to ensure transparency. Quite a tough job actually.

    That’s one of the problems with the internet as anything you post will stick on the net forever. A simple google search will reveal wtf u’ve been doing on the net , so don’t anyhow post.

  15. chappy says:

    Someone made a good point in that forum thread… 0d3x should just stop producing anime products and just import those from America. We’ll all prefer those anyway.

  16. BloodColumn says:

    Dun import the ones from US, they’ve cut some parts of their anime such as Yu-gi-oh GX. I would prefer if Singapore has fansub-quality anime, it would be purfect.

    Even if Odex make improvements, who wants people like stephen sing to manage anime distribution while himself is already making people discriminating himself while he claims that he’s a otaku. Unless Odex dun change their managment staff, alot of anime fans here will still continue to boycott their products.

    Nice post btw =]

  17. Shiro says:

    @dKiWi My apologies.I understand what you are implying and my phrasing is incorrect. But all I hope is we can exist in peace. I believe that there is only 1 common enemy and we should focus on it.

    @chappy Yes,they are making it worse…Portraying us in a bad light and with what they are doing,it seems to portray Odex in a better light…like they are the victim and we are the oppressor.

    But something is really nagging at me…Since they are trying to cramp down, I feel that the downloaders should lay low for a while. But I have seen alot of people asking for url that offers direct download. Now, otherscan point their finger and say “see,those people won’t learn,we just have to cramp down harder” That is another negative portrayal of anime fans and it may make things worse.

  18. LOL says:

    Some reasearch info on the company that ODEX hires to track IP.

    http://bmaurer.blogspot.com/2007/02/big-media-dmca-notices-guilty-until.html

    The thing is should anyone wants to try a legal course of action (I’m intending to), they need to hire a IT specialist to prove the point made on the link above.

  19. LOL says:

    Some reasearch info on the company that ODEX hires to track IP.

    http://bmaurer.blogspot.com/2007/02/big-media-dmca-notices-guilty-until.html

    The thing is should anyone wants to try a legal course of action (I’m intending to), they need to hire a IT specialist to prove the point made on the link above.

  20. Shiro says:

    Just saw this article at xedo…

    About the NOBLE intention of Mr Peter Go…from Odex…Man…I must say that I “am” impressed by his dream.

    http://www.riuva.com/?p=686

  21. hion says:

    “Currently, Odex is holding on to all letters until a better
    solution can be implemented. But please be informed that
    these letters ARE ready as and when it is required.” taken from the link provided by winterfrog.

    What does this mean? Does it mean Odex will MONITOR the situation then send the letters? So if it improves they might withdraw?

  22. LOL.

    Only DM could pull off this kind of comment system.

  23. WKSim says:

    hold on to the letter my ass…mr postman gave me mine today..anyone want to give me some decent advice.

  24. hion says:

    WKSim, no kidding?

  25. Hono DokiDoki says:

    [Quoted from Today papers]

    Voices on Radio

    Is Odex stretching the law in its actions against illegal anime downloaders? Considering the age of some culprits, would a warning letter be enough? What trail has Odex blazed for other Intellectual Property owners? These were questions raised by TODAY commentator Thomas Koshy and other readers in the past week.

    Tune in to 938Live’s Talkback programme from 8.15am to 8.45am tomorrow (friday) for a debate on this issue. Call 6691 1938 to share your thoughts.

  26. WKSim says:

    to hion:

    no im not kidding at all. the only comfort i have is that the deadline is 8th september and i can still wait for any glimmer of hope.

  27. chappy says:

    @Shiro: That’s just business talk. You’ll never get a boss of a company saying anything negative about what they do. It’s just bad business. No matter how bad your company is, or how bad your products might be, no owner will ever say it’s bad. That’s why there are critics, because they have no attachments to any companies and they say their comments from their own understanding and experience.

    Basically, you can pretty much ignore that whole thread. No matter how much is said, it’ll take a really really retarded anime downloader to buy 0d3x products because there’s no way a customer is ever going to buy stuff from a merchant who just sued him/her.

  28. hion says:

    WKsim: Did you d/l a lot?

    And dun admit anything yet.
    Remember IP cant prove everything.
    Suggest you delete yr d/l stuff asap.

  29. WKSim says:

    well for me i didnt dl anything since the catching cept the final code geass ep but my dumbass elder brother dled bleach week in week out still when i told him not to..so much for matureness. anyway the list of the portion i dled lmao comes from march. thanks odex from owning me. and yeah i was advised to just dump my hardisk off in a garbage dump

  30. WKSim says:

    sorry double post. its thanks odex for owning me.. and what i meant about the list was that the anime they showed me i have dled dates back to march when i was dling geass.

  31. Hono DokiDoki says:

    Sorry to hear that, WKSim. Will you be seeking legal advice first?

    Most of the people that were caught I heard, records of their downloads were based on Feb and Mar this year. By it means this is prior to Odex sending out its first batch of 17 letters?

    And your ISP….?

  32. naixil says:

    for those intending to call into 93.8FM tmr, pls try to do it with more contructive criticism rather than juz for a chance to flame odex more. i noe how everyone is feeling since i’m part of this whole fiasco too, but if it gets so hyped that it gets on radio, we should bring forth our stand rather than take the chance to derail odex more.

  33. WKSim says:

    I m using singnet. Im not very sure about legal advice and related stuff which is why i need some advice..i guess im a 18 yo whos ignorant bout such stuff though i just studied copyright law in poly. And as for the downloads dating back to feb n mar..the question mark in my mind is that by showing that they could track u back all the way to so many months ago, is it to show that they have more evidence on their hands then u think or for more items to charge u on?

  34. Hono DokiDoki says:

    Holy shi- which means they have not finished pursuing those 1000 from Singnet?

    This is just so wrong…

  35. WKSim says:

    Hmm I guess so? Still..if i really have to cough up 3k to 5k thats kinda of deep in my parents pocket..i guess its time to get some part time job to start paying my parents back.

  36. useract75 says:

    Dear all, I had wanted to comment on DM’s remark: “…it is very hard to guess how much damages the court will award even if they win. It may even be less than $3,000-$5,000.”

    That’s true. But even if the courts only award (say) $1000, it’s highly likely you’ve to fork out the legal fees of both sides. That’ll screw you much more than the compensation. This FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) is sure to keep people paying.

    I’m surprised Odex had not raised this point yet.

  37. hion says:

    @Hono DokiDoki

    I read somewhere they are NOT targetting specific ISPs.

    And WKSim

    I m really sorry to hear that u so sway thio the letter. Well, money spent can be earned back in the future. And u can always pay Odex in instalments provided u show prove u have financial difficulties.

    However i recommend that for now u concentrate on yr studies in poly and try not to think so much about it. Certain unexpected developments might take place for all we know.

    Plus tomorrow’s 93.8 LIVE will give us an opportunity to make our stand known publicly. Thus more people will get to know of this, and who knows what might happen next?

    Btw WKSim, what do you plan to do?

  38. AnimeFreak!!! says:

    Well there is a few things that will happen

    1. Odex goes bankrupt (that it will never happen… who knows maybe after this fiasco)

    2. Anime fans will either have to import OR buy from Odex for their daily anime fix. Now or in the future. (well maybe not from odex)

    3. ODEX says: END OF SENDING LETTER MUAHAHAHAHA. I’LL RAID YOUR HOUSE FOR PIRATED ANIME VIDEOs AND TAKE YOUR COMPUTER AND SUE YOU!! (A NEW BEGINNING AFTER THE END)

    4. He Gives Up (LOLx)

    BTW odex started this without giving a first warning (that is so unfair for those who got the letter) (and the poor 9 years old kid… haiz~ he’ll hate that guy for life)

    And what he said on the fourm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Xysing_2monthsagolo.jpg

  39. quendidil says:

    Hey just curious, those of who received the letter, what series were you downloading? Were they all in the list?

  40. Unhappiness says:

    I have a question,so is it right to say that the animes not listed in their list of animes at the AVPAS website is safe for downloading since they don’t have the rights to sue us because the anime doesn’t belong to them.
    Another thing is I went to a forum and one guy supposedly got ODEXED for downloading an anime which was licensed a few days after he downloaded it,it is not fair because when he was downloading it,it didn’t belong to ODEX,it is so unfair,for example you were testing a Pen at a bookstore and later some guy bought it than scolded you for using his Pen which wasn’t his when you were using it,so i feel that ODEX should only catch people who are downloading animes that have been licensed by ODEX instead of catching people who downloaded it before it being licensed,ODES is like setting a trap,at most they should just send a later to the downloaders of the latter situation to warn them that the anime have been licensed and that they have absolute rights to sue them if they continue.In summary,all old records of the illegal downloaders before ODEX set up the rule shold be completely erased,this way ODEX can catch the people that broke their rule despite all the warning,making it more acceptable for us.

  41. quendidil says:

    Did anyone get any letter with logs dating AFTER march? BayTSP, according to an article I read, charges from $200 to $50000 US a month to track P2P downloaders for a company. That article was back in 2002. Now they may have raised their prices. If they go much beyond that threshold of around 50 grand US, I doubt Odex could afford their services for long.

  42. elmo says:

    Xedo On!

  43. hion says:

    I really want to know how many letters have been sent out. At least we could have a good guage of how far Xedo has gone. Anyone care for a guess?

    Plus, quendilil, i have a similar question too. Did they track after march?

    And you are right that xedo cant afford it for too long.

  44. Pirate says:

    sites like Da-Anime.org offer 1000+ animes and mangas for free direct download.
    u guys should start switching to Da-Anime. they da best.

  45. Hono DokiDoki says:

    @ Pirate
    After knowing what causes this whole fiasco, I can’t believe you are still encouraging people to download anime…

  46. quendidil says:

    Well, personally, I’m still downloading Claymore, it’s not on their list and hasn’t even been licensed in the USA yet.

  47. Destro says:

    Gosh… some of the anime licensed in the AVPAS.com… is totally not being distributed in singapore by XEDO…

    And not to say that i wouldn’t want to buy the DVDs or VCDs…. but to me the prices of such anime is way to costly… and most are not the upcoming episodes… XEDO are so slow in producing the episodes of bleach that are already on air…

  48. Suigetsu says:

    is HTTP, FTP and IRC really not monitored?

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