the lion and the lamb: Oh dear, Odex

Been wanting to blog about this entire Odex saga for a while now. It started out as just another run-of-the-mill copyright case. But as things look now, things have gotten from bad to worse for ODEX. It has been a PR nightmare to say the least.

Let's re-cap from the beginning...(with help from the ever helpful Wikipedia,news and blogsites)...

Anime fans complained about the poor quality of the releases.

Odex has run into plenty of criticism over the past few years. Many fans have criticised the sub-standard quality of the anime, claiming that they were pixelated and low in resolution, hence believing that Odex was profiteering by riding on the success of the anime fanbase in Singapore. Odex refuted this claim by stating that quality issues were due to the limitations of the VCD medium, and that their DVD releases have similar quality as other DVD Region Code releases. Members of online anime discussion forums, however, states that the video quality is worse than what Odex claims

And then there was the issue of inferior and wrongly translated subtitles...

Odex's subtitle translations often come under fire. Allegations are that the english subtitles are translated off inaccurate Chinese subtitles in releases from Hong Kong, resulting in inaccurate translations."They get a Chinese translation script from Taiwan or Hong Kong, and have their people translate from that into English, introducing a large number of translation errors in the process."

Then there was even talk of their releases being pirated copies themselves,and even copies of fansubs(subtitled by fans)!!

There was a furore about ODEX pursuing and threatening anime fans, as young as 9 years of age, with threats of being charged in court unless they paid up 3 to 5k in 'settlement'. Understandably even non-anime fans were up in arms about the high-handedness of it all. To be sure anime fans (or Otaku's as they like to call themselves) are a close knit group. So in effect, at this point of the saga Odex was seen to be alienating the very people who make up their clientele. If anime fans are not buying your vcd's, then who will?

In time, the local internet community caught on to what was going between ODEX and the 'young criminal minds'. The local internet community, although not as close knit as the anime fanatics, proved to be the beginning of the end of ODEX. At forums and chat rooms across our little red dot ODEX found themselves the topic of the week. Then it surfaced that Stephen Sing was bragging in online forums about how ODEX was taking all these young fans to the cleaners...

Another issue that came to light was that Stephen Sing, under his alias of xysing, bragged about sueing anime downloaders. This was admitted by him, but he rejected its relevance, claiming it was taken out of context and was posted 2 months ago, before the controversy reached the news. His claim was easily revealed to be false, as the date of the post showed it was less than a month old.

It was then then this whole story hit the ceiling and hit the pages of the mainstream media. Stephen Sing had egg all over his face denying the charges brought before him despite the facts and came across as an arrogant twit.

wanted dead or alive. most prefer the latter it seems

Then there was the issue of how ODEX got the information on the anime fans who were responsible for the illegal downloads...
As it turned out two of the major ISPs, SingNet and Starhub had divulged the information. The only ISP who stood firm and contested having to divulge subscriber information was Pacific Internet. That 'ODEX vs PacNet' went to court and PacNet got a ruling in their favour raised a few questions. Firstly, how the other 2 ISPs so readily divulged subscriber information without even a whimper. So much for privacy and consumer confidentiality in violation of a duty of confidentiality under the Telecommunications Competition Code. Then, Judge Earnest Lau dismissed ODEX's application on the grounds that ODEX was not the copyright owner to the anime titles in dispute.

Odex had "no right of civil action" against illegal downloaders because it was just a sub-licensee — not the copyright owner or exclusive licensee — for most of the anime titles sold here

By association, SingNet and to a lesser extent Starhub, found themselves in the middle of a PR nightmare. Starhub has contested but relented in the end, unlike SingNet which did not even contest or have representatives in court. Both these ISPs have a lot to answer for. The facts brought to bear in court in the Pacnet court hearing were no different from what could have been expected had Singtel or Starhub decided to seek recourse and put their foot down.

But neither did.

A sad case of affairs and a public relations boo-boo to say the least. How could SingNet and Starhub cave in so easily to legal pressure and in the process betray the trust their substantial subscribership had placed in them? two words:damage control.

Of course, as in all epic battles, there were yet to be more twists and turns in the saga. ODEX said they were gonna appeal the court ruling and came back this time with the support of actual japanese copyright owners. They even held a media conference to state their case and do a little PR after the siege.

take a look at the sheer number of papers there are on that table containing the details of ISP subscribers

What of the 3k to 5k settlement? Isn't it rather excessive? Especially considering many of the offenders are kids still in school. Considering that there were approx. three thousand users named (3000 x $4000(between $3000 to $5000 mah)= $12,000,000!!!

ODEX's response:

"This exercise was never meant to be just an enforcement. It's not a profiteering mission to get as much money from everybody. It was conceptualized with a very big picture (in mind).

"Illegal downloaders can download animes for all they want... five years, ten years, there will be nothing left to download. This is the fear that most strikes us. We want to address that situation," - Stephen Sing

They even stated in interviews that the amount recouped 'barely covers the legal cost of pursuing'. They must sure be over paying their legal team, who seem to be unable to plug the leaks in all their court cases until this point. A watertight case it has not been thus far.

a face only a mother could love.The ODEX poster boy....

Another interesting fact that turned up was how Odex director Peter Go himself was at the centre of a copyright infringement crackdown during 1999:

A ONE-TIME firm started by the men behind Odex, the company at the centre of a crackdown on illegal downloading of anime, was itself raided by police for copyright infringement. The firm - Games Mart - was set up by Odex director Peter Go in 1994 to sell video game consoles, games and accessories. An Odex spokeman said it was raided in 1999 by the police for peddling counterfeit game controllers and other accessories. The spokesman said that Games Mart was shut down in 2004.

The proverbial pot calling the kettle black.

To rebutt accusations regarding their purported 'inferior subtitles', ODEX had this to say:

Odex blames the censorship laws in Singapore for inaccurate subbing. Odex says that they had to tweak subtitles in some of its anime to conform to the Board of Film Censors' (BFC) requirements.

right... as everyone knows Singapore has the most outdated and draconian censorship laws in human history...

But the BFC replied just today:

"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."- Senior Asst. Director of Board of Film Censors

Hmm.. someone seems to be lying here....

So until someone eats some humble pie, this ODEX saga is far from over. Even with the law purportedly on their side, ODEX's reputation has suffered irreparable damage and public ridicule. Its a long road back for the embattled anime distributor.

I do not think I have even covered all the bases yet on this story. There are others more apt to discuss the legal implications and complexities pertaining to this case. And then there are those in the local anime community who can give first-hand accounts of what is really going on in the minds of the ones being affected by all these criminal settlements.

Meanwhile, despite Singapore's tough laws on public demonstrations and unlawful assembly's, this unruly mob was seen making their feeling's known at Youth Park outside Cineleisure...