http://www.odex.com.sg/forums/viewtopic.php?t=97
Originally Posted by xysing
I think I should put up something here to tell a bit of our side of
the story, all these had been communicated one way or another to
the press.
First, the double-six issue.
Now, that is entirely my fault, and it has nothing to do with Odex
as a whole. In hindsight I admit that it was a flippant remark, and
could have been more sensitive about it. But it was never
intentional, nor meant to offend anybody, the last thing I'd think
of doing is to alienate myself with our potential customers. But
enough had been said about this.
The 9-year old kid.
I've received his parent's consent to release the terms. (Please
note that we cannot do so without his agreement, that is a privacy
issue). His appeal to the copyright holders was based upon age and
low income family with all documents furnished and accepted. The
final amount was S$600 to be paid over 12 months, and the parents
paid up one shot. The case was resolved in July.
The charity issue.
The original message to the press was : We will invite or engage a
reputable auditor to audit our accounts pertaining to the
collection and costs of this excercise. If (note the word IF) there
is any profit, we will donate all of them to a charitable
cause.
Now if you ask me, I'm absolutely confident that there will be
NO PROFIT. But the only way to show the public
this is to have an audit so as to prove our motive and
transparency. If we are to be found that there is a profit, then we
should not take that money, it's that simple actually.
Traditionally piracy issues tackle distribution entites - shut down
the local pirate shop and you resolved much of the problem.
BitTorrent changes that completely. Downloaders and filesharers no
longer need to go anywhere physically to pick up something. Yes,
you can say it is all "non-profit", but while you're downloading
you're uploading too - what gives you the rights to give somebody
else something that you did not own? What gives you the rights to
get something that you didn't pay for - anime is a business
production, the anime studio has a rights to demand payment for it
- and that should be respected. By taking them just off the net
willfully, you've basically throw the respect of copyright aside,
and justifying it to say that it is for the "greater good". The
greater good of who? Certainly not the anime studios or the
animators in Japan.
The so called merchandising benefit only applies to a very minor
sector of anime - no doubt that they are usually the most
advertised, or the most well-known. But the majority of anime in
Japan doesn't have a merchandising potential that is bigger than
TV/DVD sales, and those titles, and therefore their studios, suffer
because of illegal filesharing. We've talked to all of them, they
told us. Have you talked to them?
(o.o)y
If they know there will be no profits, why do they have to
demand $3k - $5k of settlement fees in the 1st place?
Originally Posted by xysing
But with so much publicity now, it is difficult for me to be
convinced that somebody who is still downloading NOW is unaware
that filesharing is illegal.
So if the individual is still doing so, what choice do we have
except to take stern actions against him.
However, for all who are willing to respect the Anime studio's
rights to survive, please stop illegal filesharing now. There will
be no backlog letters.
There is really no point arguing about quality, speed, availability
and so on, the fundamental is the same - illegal filesharing is
infringing the intellectual property rights of the copyright
holders. And no one is going to dispute that it is wrong. Judge
Ernest said that, Andy Ho said that, everybody said that. So even
if Odex is restricted by the technicalities of the Singapore law to
help the copyright holders, that is not going to change a thing,
the copyright holders will do it themselves if need be.
(o.o)
