The Odex vs Local Anime Fans Saga
Odex is a local Singapore company that licenses and releases animes for sale in Singapore that has been going around demanding out-of-court settlement fees from anime fansub downloaders and threatening legal proceedings if downloaders fail to pay settlement fees averaging S$3,000 to S$5,000 within a given grace period. What is disturbing is that local Internet Service Providers Singnet and Starhub are unconditionally turning over confidential data of their subscribers over to Odex, compromising their privacy.
Source: Newgrounds
Anime fans all over the country are protesting. It is said that Odex although is the largest distruibutor of Japanese animes in Singapore, the quality of their animes are subpar, with poor picture quality and inaccurate subtitles.
The now notorious director of Odex, Stephen Sing has been receiving hate mail and even death threats. “Wanted” posters of him and his family are spreading online, after his photographs and contact details were revealed in forums. Stephen Sing has since made police reports fearing the safety of his family.
Although I have stopped downloading anime years ago, in favor of watching them more conveniently on YouTube and Veoh.com, I am still disturbed by the fact that Singnet and Starhub has unconditionally, without contesting, surrendered confidential information of their subscribers to Odex. Many are saying Odex and the two ISPs have “deals”, but I’ll leave that to you to decide. Like me, many existing subscribers of Singnet, as well as subscribers of Starhub are displeased with the lack of protection of their customers.
On the other hand, the next major ISP in Singapore, Pacific Internet has resisted legal threats from Odex and won the case in court. More details here. Many are now considering jumping ship to PacNet, who now is considered a “hero” in forums and blogs.
If you are an anime fan, You can watch fan subs without downloading them. You can watch them on YouTube and Veoh.com as well as DailyMotion. Do your part and boycott companies who label themselves as “anime lovers and otakus” but are now busting fellow anime fans for money. As for ISPs, I will definitely jump over to PacNet once my contract with Singnet ends.
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