BitTorrent Anime Downloaders Identified, $3500 Bill in the Mail
Written by enigmax on August 16, 2007A company that distributes Japanese animated cartoons has tracked down thousands of BitTorrent users it accuses of breaching their copyrights and has successfully forced their ISPs to reveal their identities. Next step - threatening letters: “Pay Us $3,500 or Else”
Odex Pt. Ltd is a Singapore-based company that distributes anime in South East Asia. Created in 1998 it started distributing anime in 2000, later with titles such as Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, Mobile Suit Gundam and Chrono Crusade.
In 2007 a decision was made in the company to start targeting people who share their material via BitTorrent after they claimed their sales had dropped 60-70 percent in just 2 years. After using a tracking system to collect the IP addresses of sharers, they have successfully forced StarHub - an internet service provider - to reveal the identities of 1000 BitTorrent users they accuse of breaching their copyrights. It had previously forced the ISP SingNet to reveal its customers details.
In all fairness, StarHub did put up a fight to keep the privacy of its users but it was little use. According to StarHub spokesman Michael Sim, although the company originally said they had “an obligation to protect our customers’ information”, the pressure from the courts was too great. A court order against StarHub was obtained in a closed chamber session in the Subordinate Court which forces them to hand over their customer’s details.
“In the instance of Odex,” said Sim, “they have satisfied the court of their need for the information. As such, we will comply with the court order”
The next step for Odex is a familiar one to file-sharers: they will use the list of names that StarHub supplies to send them threatening letters(pdf) declaring that they’ve been caught sharing anime, such as the hugely popular ‘Bleach’, and that the only alternative to being dragged through the courts, is to pay a $3000-plus ‘fine’. Not that they’ll have much time to think about the next step - Odex gives around 9 days for a response before it threatens legal action.
According to Stephen Sing (a director of Odex) the “downloading situation” in Singapore is very bad: “We have engaged companies to track illegal downloads in Singapore, and ratio-wise, we’re actually right up there in the illegal downloads in the world, in terms of Japanese animation.”
Interestingly, Stephen Sing is also a director of the AVPAS - Anti Video Piracy Association of Singapore and has become very, very unpopular. Just after the Odex anti-BitTorrent campaign began, Mr Sing made the mistake of using an online forum to joke about how many sharers he was taking action against, and the guys over at HardwareZone caught him at it, via their dedicated (Official) Anti-Odex Club.
Mr Sing has been dubbed ‘the most hated main in Singapore’s anime community’, with anime fans putting up his photographs and personal information onto the internet, making wanted posters of him, posting pictures of his wife on the internet, threatening him with violence and promising to set fire to his house. At this point, Sing called in the police.
Next ISP on the Odex hit-list is Pacific Internet - if they win, that’s another 1000 BitTorrent users about to get threatening letters and demands for $3000 - thats 3000 users in total.
Should everyone pay up, Odex stands to collect a massive $9 million. No wonder the death-threats didn’t deter Mr Sing.
Previously: Anti-Piracy Lobby Pressures Police to Take On The Pirate Bay
Next: Comcast Throttles BitTorrent Traffic, Seeding Impossible
107 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
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I download stuff and I wouldn’t be too amused to get caught and fined with hundreds of dollars.
But I know the risk and I do understand the industry. I’m not for a market where entertainment is free, it wouldn’t work.
These people getting pissed just because Odex has gotten tired of pirates is funny.
“with anime fans putting up his photographs and personal information onto the internet, making wanted posters of him, posting pictures of his wife on the internet, threatening him with violence and promising to set fire to his house.”
solution:
dont download from public sites…
or use peergaurdian to protect ur ip from evil companies :)
[quote comment="147747"]solution:
dont download from public sites…
or use peergaurdian to protect ur ip from evil companies :)[/quote]
I’m sure the anti-piracy companies also monitor private sites and PeerGuardian won’t protect you 100% …
Go buy an Relakks account https://www.relakks.com/ as safe as you can get atm.
http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/rehashplus/post.htm?id=63000177
Wow Odex you finally made yourself famous! Foreign sites are even now reporting the idiocy of your damn company which cheat Singaporeans into buying your lousy, fansubbed ripped-off products.
Options:
1. pay $3000
2. goto court
3. you live in Northern-Europe and tell them to fuck off
i’ll pick…hmm…hmm…oh boy, this is hard…..3?
Europe 8)
A revenue of 9 million without doing anything. Now that’s craponomics in progress.
so is anybody actually paying those 3000$???
c’mon, you just have to laugh at those…seriously…that guy is a joke :D
Posting from singapore here..
Its not that they are wrong to catch pirates. Its just that they themselves(odex) has not been producing good quality animes as compared to those fansub. And of course, those who want higher quality will get from fansubs, which has lesser grammar mistakes and better picture quality.
They are many who paid but some minority just resist and wanting to go to court.
And they have even sued a 9 year old boy for downloading. What is the world coming to?
You decide.
routers?
I just read an article that here in Finland a guy has actually been arrested of showing some movie to his friends and he has to pay aroud 20€ fine…
And this case in newest since finish BitTorrent site “Finreactor” was shutted down in 2005.
And the funny thing is that they was demand over 60,000€ fine, but they only had to pay…less then 500€…
Life is a bit different aroud the world…but its changing worse…
I download loads of anime every day and until now I never heard of anyone getting busted for free sharing :/
At least anime is legal to some degree.
Snag the hell out of art sponges and free-sending nimrods, all… heavily fine their fricking intestines clean… and then maybe, just maybe, making a living in the arts will be possible for the 99.9% percent in the field who struggle.
I know you slept with XYZ, but if you pay me 3.5K, I’ll destroy the evidence and not pursue the case. I have photographs to prove you did so.
I will understand him if he had targeted PEOPLE(above 20, who work and gets paid) instead of children, I mean come on, you expect every 12 year old kid on the planet to fully know about copyright and stuff? Charging them 3k? Seriously, at least give them a warning first or charge them for less, like you know 100 bucks.
Nice article, however, you forgot to mention the death threats he claimed were actually taken out of context from a very childish screenshot of a movie.
“Mr Sing made the mistake of using an online forum to joke about how many sharers he was taking action against,”
He commented on the local news media that the gloating comments were made a couple of months ago, where it in fact had been made on the 1st of August, making it more like a couple of weeks ago.
Word for word, where do you think this guy’s integrity stands?
someone mentioned peerguardian…
it won’t do jack when it comes to hiding your ip. all it does is prevent targeted ips from downloading from you. they could still see your ip when they load up the torrent
Integrity? I doubt he has even heard of the word.
I agree with the one who said kids should at least be charged less or get a warning.
Fansubs are way better quality. They do correct translations, dont misspell English, have a nice, legible font, and arent off-sync (both the subs or the voices.) Maybe if those companies actually put effort into their subs, they might get better sales. And not just for this company, Im talking about all the anime companies out there.
Is that the same Stephen Sing the Child Pornographer who is sympathetic to Al-Queda and said he hates the Singapore Government and wants to see them overthrown?
This guys sounds dangerous. I hope the Singaporean Government locks him up.
A fansub is that person’s property. Either they bought it and subbed it or they illegally downloaded and subbed it, either way it is THEIRS, they did the work of subbing it. You cannot claim infringement on property that is not even yours. By subbing it they are changing it entirely. Now if someone is downloading Odex’s subs without paying that is illegal, but I really don’t see how they can get away with saying something they did not sub (the fansub) is their property.
I had a co worker work for a law firm that collected money. Its a scare tactic. nothing else. They have to prove YOU did it, because all they have is an IP number. Just deny everything and the worst that can happen is your net is shut off. All someone had to do was state the fact they cannot prove anything and they were taken off the list.
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