Image ripped off here
BTW the organization mentioned in the letter Anti-Piracy Association of Singapore is similar to the RIAA/RIAS except that Odex appears to be the sole active local member.
The organization has obtained authorizations from various Japanese studios to represent their rights for all their copyrighted works, even those that are not licensed by Odex for distribution in Singapore.
The full list of authorised titles can be found on their website.
Some thoughts found on intarwebs coupled with some of mine.
I am very, very extremely curious as to how Odex, a private local business entity, managed to obtain personal data from the ISPs based on purely circumstantial evidences. As far as I can see from the AVPAS member list, there is zero indication that it is anything else but a private organization. It is neither related to the police nor the relevant government agencies.
Therefore, we can safely conclude that it is the anime equivalent of the RIAA.
However, RIAA, as mighty and powerful as it appears to be, is not able to obtain any personal information from American ISPs directly. It has to do it through the court. That means there are tones of legal mambo jambo they has to go thru like subpoenas to force ISPs to reveal the identities of the downloaders. The names are undisclosed by ISPs until after the court subpoena. In such cases, the first letter received by the poor sob should be from his own ISP informing him of the existence of such a subpoena for his identity, instead of a legal letter from the suing party.
The above letter is addressed to the person himself and was sent directly by Odex.
This only means that Odex, without first going through any legal proceedings, is able to obtain personal information directly from the ISPs using only the IP address. That is totally outta this world if you consider the enormous amount of power that has been put into the hands of a private company and the potential for abuse by individuals with their personal agendas.
You know, there’s a certain someone whom I really hate on a certain forum like Tigerkiller. I will fake produce a record of his IP address illegally torrenting a video that I once did and I shall then e-mail this “proof” to Singnet and ask for this person’s home address. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll go spend $5 to register a company to make the request seem more legitimate.
Of course Odex is a legitimate company that is trying to protect its rights under the current intellectual property rights law (flawed as it may be). But my point is that if a private entity can obtain such information without the prior knowledge of the people involved and without the authority of the court, then what exactly in our legal system is protecting our privacy from abuse by some unscrupulous characters? And if such protection of personal privacy does indeed exist, what exactly allows Odex to bypass it?
Then again, I’m not well-versed with the local legal system. Or maybe our privacy laws are really that screwed up.
Read this excellent explanation of the “RIAA vs. John Doe” lawsuits, particularly the sections on “How the RIAA identifies the people they sue” and “The Lawsuit Begins”, and compare it to what Odex is apparently authorized to do. Doesn’t RIAA look like the better alternative?
So what are your remaining options for your weekly anime fix?
1. Direct download sites
2. Obscure China Bittorrent trackers
3. Move to Japan
4. Find a job at Odex
Alternatively, find a safer hobby like playing pirated ps3 games or serial jaywalking across expressways.
PS: Can everyone tell Livi to stop downloading.
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