According to a forum post by Stephen Sing, as of today (3rd September) no more backlogged letters will be sent out. Odex will not take legal action against you with old evidence. If you stop downloading from today, you are guaranteed, by the man himself, not to get Odex’ed ever.
Original thread on Odex forums:
If an individual stop downloading now, today, on the 3rd September, 2007, he will have no possibility of ever receiving any letters from the copyright holders, (aka the Odex letter) as we will not take anything that he has downloaded before this date against him. We will not send any letters to him.
If an individual continues to download and shows up on our investigation we will send him a letter to ask him to explain why it is so. If he cannot give us a reasonable explanation of why that happened, we will reserve the rights to take legal action against him, with all the evidences that we have collected before and after the 3rd of September (there would necessarily be evidence after the 3rd in order for this to happen).
Apparently an official statement will be released soon, but I think a forum post from xysing is as good as any official statement. I guess they have finally recovered their fees. Well that’s that for BitTorrenting anime I guess. I shall make do with Nico Nico Video.
On another note, I just finished rewatching all five seasons of Futurama. Good stuff.
How many are still bittorrenting in the first place?
Here’s one :). And I can still sometimes see a few other Singaporean IPs on my peer list. Anyway, I just avoid the series on their list.
On a side note, just to be a grammar Nazi;
“If an individual stop downloading now,”
unless he is somehow using the subjunctive mood (though in which case it should be the future subjunctive, and hence the sentence is still wrong), it should be “If an individual stops now”.
“..with all the evidences..”
evidence is uncountable, hence no plural.
Good grief, can someone sic the _grammar police_ on Odex already? Companies that continue to write their press releases in broken English are an embarrassment to themselves and to Singapore.
After some search, “evidences” can be used too, but it still seems somewhat archaic and ecclesiastical.
i guess thats it for the xedo saga, will they still be able to sell any animes here?
Even if they can’t sell any anime, it’s alright because according to chua hian hou’s article on 2 Sep 07, mr sing said, “As anime lovers ourselves, we don’t mind if you don’t buy Odex products, but we really hate freeloaders…”
That was already true before this fiasco no? true fans were buying from adv and blue max, most havent even heard of odex. the anime studio doesn’t lose money as revenue is coming in from different channels. but because they were not buying from odex, odex blame poor sales on downloading. isn’t that yet another contradiction from odex?
Anyway i guess all local anime fans should buy from blue max or import from overseas and not buy from odex from now on.
@kenji
The directors of Odex said that they are “humbled” by the odex flamming. U can think of it as a kind of compromise for the contradictions… …
I still hope that people purchase from other sources of DVD nonetheless……
It’s too late. There’s no way I’m going to be on good terms with Odex anymore. Well, since they’re obviously fine with it, I’m cool too.
Btw, I’m still not sure whether I can trust whatever xysing posted, as Xedo doesn’t have a very good history of sticking to what they say.
Stopping now only serves to aggravate the greivances of those fined before. Poor 9 year old boy. =(
On a brighter note, doesn’t this kinda affect their relationship with the Jap firms? Hope it makes a big dent there then. ^^
I just saw their new website. Anyway, I will give them the benefit of doubt. If Odex is ready to improve, I am ready to forgive…
PS. It has just came to mind that this is an obvious move to pacify the raging netizens. The more I think about it, there’s seems to be something hidden amidst the whole thing. Put it logically: Odex was so fierce and firm on the entire issue and now they’re saying this?
Something’s amiss. They’re definitely getting something BETTER from doing this than pursuing their former path. Something better than getting a few more fans on their side.
If Xedo does this >> neitizens stop digging/finding out things about them. (Which logically follows that they have something to hide?) It may not be the only reason they’ve started this, but it can be considered one of the reasons no doubt.
I am just spectulating…of course.
@wirbelwind: My point is simply their words is not good as gold, heck it’s not even worth a nickle. For someone to lie and say their gloating remarks were made 2 mths instead of 2 weeks ago, their words are like the boy crying wolf.
If they are truly sincere, why the perpetual tough stance? (http://www.straitstimes.com/Video%2BNews/Singapore/STIVodcast_2526.html?playid=2526&type=Top)
They failed to realise or admit that the local anime industry is what it is because of fansubbed animes. Weren’t they themselves downloading animes too in the past before the started odex? I’ll bet they are, how else can they call themselves ‘true otakus’.
And what of the pacnet appeal? Does it mean they will stop appealing? Or are they pressing forward so they can take more ‘legal actions’ when they feel like it?
Futurama is good shit.
It is a bit weird if you ask me. If they indeed honour their word, then there is no point pursuing, even appealing the Pacific Internet case. Even if they won, if they decide to stick to this promise it will be nothing but a Pyhrric victory, as the stacks of paperwork they obtain from PacNet is as good as toilet paper.
Or it might suggest to me that the Singnet’s batch of downloaders they have fined from, at their current calculations, have satisfied more than enough of their current legal costs.
wtf, so who got sued are owned….. I should have continued…..
That’s right. If ODEX is going to improve, why continue to bare fangs at them or give them the cold shoulder? If they can offer competitively priced products, I’ll buy.
On the other hand, feels like ODEX is some giant Gundam walking up to the speech podium. And the people squashed and flattened on the way are those poor things who got ODEXed. After they’ve made their way to the podium and recovered their losses, all’s good… they can happily make peace with the world, and awww group hug.
Sucks for the ODEXees. Mere pawns in the game of life and business.
Technically Odex didn’t sue them… they just sent them pre-litigation letters. Woe to those who actually paid though.
I sincerely hope that Pacnet to get a fighting chance in this one.
Meanwhile I am already searching for alternatives. Better to start doing it now before i return to SG end of the year.
So far http://www.anitube.net is quite promising. New, but promising.
After their high handed method backfired on them, now they changed tack and says “In the name of god, stop downloading”.
1. Do they even have they proper clearance to sue in the first place? As a company, their interest is in profits. Who authorised them to act as gods?
2. Even if TV ToKyo, Gonzo, Media Station and Toei gives them the exclusive distro rights, what about the rest of the companies?
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Originally Posted by xysing
No, no backlog letters applied to all users, it has nothing to do with the ISPs you use.
Like I say, can’t discuss much about it, but we will in time.
Just remember that as long as you stop downloading now, regardless of what ISP you’re using, there will be no letters knocking at your door (not from us anyway)
(o.o)
This post was made by SS later in the same thread regarding no more backlog. Now watch those last words in brackets. He practically means Odex won’t pursue those who stop today, but original copyright holders or AVPAS (same entity here) may do it. So don’t get too happy yet. Link: http://www.odex.com.sg/forums/viewtopic.php?t=97&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15
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oh yaay!! Reading from different forums and found out
that now more than half of the odex haters are odex
lovers now! It seems to me that they feel safe…
so it only apply to ANIME? what about other kinds of file? like Mangas, Movies, Dramas or anything else except anime? i just want to make sure. lol
I’ve never realized that Singapore had such a large community of forums or bloggers. I must have been blind. Anyway, I digress.
I’ve spent quite some money on the anime/manga industry but I have to admit most of them have been spent on getting the mangas themselves and virtually none for the animes. I have to praise Chuang Yi for the quality of their releases nowadays. Their older releases were just horrible but at least they’ve learnt. Odex ought to learn from them.
The reasons why I don’t spend on anime products are simple: too expensive and of horrible quality. I have a free Odex One Piece VCD from one of the volumes of One Piece and it sucked and I doubt I’ve ever gotten anything from Odex ever since. Even my American friend who watched a bit of that said it was worse than 4Kids dub. It’s not easy to sink to that level.
I had a very bad impression of Odex at the start of this saga but after reading this post, I think we should cut them some slack and give them that one tiny chance to turn back. If their quality improves (the first step would be to dump the VCDs), they’ll have my money. Otherwise, I’d probably just stick to manga and forget about the animation.
Just my two cents.
I just hope that their quality will shoot up though
Their first step would be to dump censorship. Thats the main gripe of the more hardcore fans.
The first step should be to close down forums where less than 50 percent of the posts are written in proper English. In the name of the “Speak Good English Campaign” of course, just like how Hokkien TV was wiped off the air back when linguistic homogeneity was desired.
Fair enough. Maybe it’s a cynical marketing ploy to make us buy. Who cares? Now I may consider buying some Odex after all. I’ll see whether the quality is as lousy as some others say.
Why is everyone falling for this?? The result of the appeal isn’t out yet and now XYSing is speaking as if he has full authority and the evidence to bring downloaders to court. Those are just honeyed words with lots of chili hiding inside. We should refrain from making uninformed decisions regarding his “ultimatum” until the appeal is over. Then we will know whether XYSing has the “right” or should I say “power” to follow through this declaration of his.
Afterall, from what i think, if they still cannot bring copyright holders to pacnet court case, they have no chance of winning since sing already mention that letters will not be issued by them.
http://www.todayonline.com/articles/209169.asp
This is lame…
Letter form Tan Lee Cheng, Senior Asst Director (Film Standards), Board of Film Censors
We refer to the article “Japanese anime firms close ranks with Odex” (Aug 31).
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Mr Peter Go, managing director of Odex, is said to have commented that the subtitles of some of his anime series had to be tweaked to conform to the Board of Film Censors’ (BFC) requirements.
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This statement is not correct and the BFC would like to take this opportunity to clarify its position.
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Subtitles are usually provided by distributors to reach out to a wider audience or to translate content that may be in a foreign language (example, Japanese anime). There are occasions when the quality of translation may be the cause of poor subtitling. This has nothing to do with the classification process but it is still worthwhile for distributors to address as consumers would expect to have accurate translation of purchased works.
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It is also the distributor’s responsibility to ensure that subtitles reflect the true content of an anime (that is, animation) especially its dialogue and commentary. If subtitles are not accurate, they can mislead the viewer and also make it difficult for the BFC to classify an anime accurately.
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The BFC has never asked for subtitles to be tweaked. We require that subtitles accurately reflect the content of a film or video so that we can classify the content accurately. Inaccurate subtitles also do no service to the community or to the young who may be misled into thinking that an anime is suitable for them when it could be meant for a higher age group.
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As the ratings for videos (including anime) range from G to M18, there is sufficient leeway to allow for the subtitling of mature content without subtitles having to be tweaked.
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We urge all distributors to translate and subtitle their content accurately so that they can provide an informative service to viewers. Letter form Tan Lee Cheng, Senior Asst Director (Film Standards), Board of Film Censors
LOL at the people who say they will buy Odex stuff if they improve. Even after they’ve extorted over a million bucks from us in a mere three months.
Stick with R1s and R2s people. Don’t support those who try to ruin the scene.
Odex should have taken this kind of sensible action from the start, instead of intimidating downloaders with empty legal threats.
In this way, mr. sing could’ve won more friends than foes.
At least, the anime community has finally able to whack some common sense and morality in mr. sing’s thick skull.
Last but not least, thank you anime community of singapore, for joining hand in hand to fight odex all the way. Without your voices in the local media, odex would still be sending ppl unjustified fine letters.
Anime Banzai !!
I know why they have shitty subtitling with them Shakugan no Shana DVDs. If they translated Onee-chan to “Sister”, rather than “Master”, the BFC would think that the anime has incest material in it and classify it as R21. R21 products don’t go on retail shelves.
Genius.
I think that it will be more advisable to watch and learn. Odex mght be up to something…
The way i see it, it’s only an unofficial statement by mr. sing. So as long as it’s not on black and white, signed by lawyers or attorneys, it’s not legally binding. Besides, he said odex won’t sue, which means AVPAS or japanese anime firms CAN sue our asses dry.
Don’t be fooled. It’s not the end of journey, guys.
If you value quality anime, please support n buy R1/R2 dvds if you can. Screw odex !!
http://www.todayonline.com/articles/209169.asp
@Xlayer: A lame attempt in lying to cover up for their poor translation indeed. Once again we see another one of Odex’s lie exposed. Thank God the BFC bothered to clarified this else more people will be duped to believe that Odex’s product is so good.
niconico is the best thing that’s happened to my life. I don’t care if the anime on it gets deleted a day later. I just want to watch it fast, watch it once, and I’m very happy. If I like it so much to watch it again, I’ll get an official version of it. Only if I am damn stuck then I will “act smart”.
Plus it has a lot of genius MADs on it. YARANAIKA
Aw… LianYL beat me to it. Futurama is top notch animation. Can’t wait for the next season sometime next year.
what is all this “no more letters from odex”. WHAT A thing to say!
HOW ABOUT RETURNING THE MONEY TO THOSE WHOM WAS FINED BEFORE PUBLISHING SOMETHING LIKE THIS, to show that things can be taken back.
WHAT IS DONE CANT BE UNDONE!
i am not shouting though, but i want o highlight with the capitals.
I say,the kitten image was very cute. XD I saw that image twice today :3
Odex has acquired enough money from those settlement payments that they don’t need those money badly now.
The game stop at XEDO level but what about AVAPS or the Jap or some other companies that will takes this as an example and ‘extort’ from the rest..
Bang a few bucks and retreat for a while..
Just like guerrilla warfare..
When is the pacnet appeal case again??? I think that case determine the future of our anime community.
Today is the big day. Odex vs Pacnet…
Do not buy anything from Odex. If you do, they’ll get richer. With more money in their kitty, the next time they whack you, you will surely lau sai green shit and you will surely run out of underpants.
They already show you what evilness they’re capable of. Do you want your friends, relatives, and small kids in Singapore to be odexed again and again before you wake up to their greed and evilness?
Yeh, and dont forget, they also use fansubs and tweak the subtitles and release boxsets on us. A very good evidence that they use fansubs, is the anime title “Mar Heaven” You will know what i meant. :)
Well…In the past before odex came out, they even sell pirated stuffs…What more can we expect from them…So how’s the pac net case?
Maybe you are right, for now they might be able to survive. But question is for how long?? The lack of support and popularity from the anime community is a good reason for Odex been not able to survive in this market for long based on just anime itself.
Reasons are: They can’t be depending on Art Central to have their anime broadcast which only show 1 to 2 anime 3 times a week (correct me if I’m wrong, I think it Wednesday to Friday), Odex also need support from VCD / DVD reseller to help promote their products which sad for them to say, majority of the anime lovers might not wish to get it from them anymore due to poor management by Odex.
Another reason which is a timebomb to Odex. Their VOD might not be able to help them survive for long as not many ppl who are mostly students, Teenager or young children (as mention in the newspaper during the crackdown) has online payment processor like paypal or other type even if they wish to implement later (not to mention that they have the money to fund for one). Even if there are alot of ppl who have payment processor, The question is how supportive are the anime community now to Odex?!?
Low support = low sale. So does that mean we are still at fault for their low sale of anime again?!? Rubbish!!
Odex need to change their sales tactic and work on how consumer want for the things they paid for. Not just because due to high amount of downloaders in Singapore that causes the huge drop of sale and they just go round tracing ppl and issue them with legal letter. Odex might have win the war against the download, but they have lost the support of anime community in Singapore. So in the end who is the last to survive? Singaporean do not need anime to survive as some of them have mention. But in business term dealing with anime products, Odex need the anime lover’s support to survive.
Think abt it SS. Work with the community or else strap the timebomb on your company.
I don’t think there’s any way to improve sales. as many know that in singapore , anime is mostly for kids , unlike japan that even adult still watching anime. this is one of the reason that why no one get sued in US for downloading anime and either do any fanssub group (mostly just get warning letter) .