StarHub must give names of illegal anime downloaders
Tuesday, 14th August 2007
Prime News, Straits Times
By Chua Hian Hou
The Singapore distributor of Japanese animated cartoons called
anime has won the right to track down fans who download the
programmes illegally using Starhub internet accounts.
A subordinate court has ordered the Telco to disclose the identity
of about 1,000 of its subscribers accused of illegally downloading
anime.
It is believed to be one of the largest crackdowns of illegal
Internet downloading by home users in Singapore.
The recent hearing was held in a closed chamber session, so few
details of the case are available publicly. The action was taken by
local anime distributor ODEX.
Starhub had initially resisted the companys efforts to get its
customer data, said a spokesman for Telco, as it had "an obligation
to protect our customer' information". But it now has no choice but
to comply with the court order, as ODEX had satisfied the court of
its need for the information.
Once ODEX obtains the identities of these Internet users from
Starhub, it is expected to write to them demanding a settlement of
up to $5,000 and a promise to stop further illegal
downloading.
In May, ODEX went after 17 Singnet subscribers after obtaining a
similar court order. It then sent more letters to an undisclosed
number of other Singnet subscribers also accused of illegally
downloading anime.
Odex Director Peter GO said a few infringers with financial
difficulties were allowed to settle for about $1,000. He added that
a number of those who had received the letter had engaged lawyers,
but did not contest ODEX's case.
Having suceeded in getting SingNet and Starhub customer lists, ODEX
will now go after customers of another internet service provider,
Pacific Internet, in the subordinate courts later this week. It is
understood ODEX has accused about 1,000 PacNet users of illegal
downloading.
PacNet spokesman Bernard Ho, said the firm was "resisting the
application" made by ODEX in court.
However, lawyers familiar with such applications say they have
strong track record of sucess. But information obtained this way is
not always useful to the plaintiff. For instance, the user may no
longer be in the country.
Popular with both children and adults, the anime industry was worth
as much as US$5 Billion ($7.5billion) world wide according to 2004
Business Week report. However, illegal downloads, available online
since the late 1990s, have cut deeply into the profits of producers
and distributers.
Mr Peter GO said the South Korean anime market, once the world's
second largest after Japan, collapsed several years ago due to
piracy problems.
This prompted Japanese studios making anime to band together to
mount the crackdown here as they were worried Singapore, although
not big a market, would end up the same way.
A 23 year old anime fan acknowledged that there some truth to Mr
GO'S words. "At my peak a while ago, I used to download 5 to 10
gigabytes of anime a week, " said the undergraduate, who declined
to be named. Now, he is resigned that his past will catch up with
him.
"It's just a matter of time before I get the dreaded ODEX
Letter."
Copyright © 2007 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Co. Regn No.
198402868E
They STILL do not realise that most people download because of the
shitty product they put out at outrageous prices. Their subtitles
are horrendous because they get freelancers to translate wholesale
from hong kong chinese subtitles copied from other distributors'
DVDs (hmmm....someone should sure Odex for this?)
