UPDATE 2: I have reached the desired sample size. Thank you everyone for your help! I will publish the results here soon. Maybe tomorrow.
UPDATE: The survey has been reopened! Please go do it now if you haven’t already! I also added some new questions, but if you have already done the survey then it’s okay.
After helping out some Sec 3 students with their school project, I have decided to conduct my own little survey to satisfy my personal curiosity. So, if you are a Singaporean anime fan, then please take this survey! And please help to spread it around to all your anime buddies!
Do the survey or Yuki gets it…again!
And in case you haven’t heard… Odex has roped in four Japanese companies, held a press conference that resulted in the first CNA article on the subject, and launched their new VOD service with a grand total of two titles up for download.
Anyway, please do the survey, okay? I need a titanic sample size.
The presence of the Japanese reps MAY suggest something more sinister. However, take note that it could very well just be a PR move and to show that they are backing their local distributors. If they had something more concrete like say signing exclusive rights to Odex it would have been done and broadcast by now.
And here’s another thing to note, Today’s Sunday Times reveal the Odex’s main source of income is from dubbing and post production work. Anime video sales is secondary accounting for about 15%. And here’s the cincher=Odex made about 1 mil in 2005 according to Go and this means they made around 150k from direct sales. Since the Japanese get a cut only from sales and not production work, Odex is bringing them a rather small amount of money, especially when you consider this 150k is divided among several companies.
The Japanese don’t get a cut of the deals with Mediacorp and SCV and they don’t get a cut when they sell it to Malaysian broadcasters. So Odex is only making a small amount for them and they really have no reason to come all the way here to start legal action.
Odex can crash and burn in court and it wouldn’t really affect them that much. After all, they only had to sign and give a letter to Odex and nothing else. Odex flew the Japanese over at their expense so they had no reason to reject, but actually coming over here to start legal action involves cross juristition, hiring a local law firm AND deciding which company gets what as well as registering themselves here. Plus if BayTSP’s evidence is discredited in court then basically the Japanese have nothing to sue from.
Sure Toei’s rep may have said we’re going straight to court if Odex looses but guess what, they can say anything they like now. Until they do all the releted procedures and the papers are filed with the Court it all counts for nothing. They can always blame a mistranslation later on for the quote( and it really isn’t that hard to be ambigous in Japanese) or say the High Court has opened their eyes to the nature of copyright.
There has been talk about because how small the regional market is the Japanese don’t care enough to talk about how we feel. Well the flip side of the coin is they won’t care enough if Odex goes under. They only have to collect the license fees from Odex and a cut of the video profits. Everything else really doesn’t affect them that much. Their main priority is still the Japanese market and maybe the growing US market. They have no business reason to incur the logistic and manpower costs to come over to SG to start legal action.
They can, but whether they will after Odex looses is another matter.
Let’s put it this way, If Odex is still named as a plantiff in the appeal, Odex’s lawyers will be trying to argue the case that the legal representative can get money and damages that only the victim is entitled to. If this were a defamation case, it’d be like the lawyer getting the money instead of the person being defamed. Damages can only be granted to someone who has been deprived or his rights or legal interests and being a sub licensee and distributor Odex doesn’t have any legal interests or rights in a copyright infringment case. They can only legally sue for distribution offenses, not infringement. They can REPRESENT the Japanese BUT THEY SURE AS HELL CANNOT NAME THEMSELVES AS THE PLANTIFF WHICH ODEX APPEARS TO BE DOING AGAIN IN THE APPEAL.
I’m also quite sure Rajah and Tan understands this basic legal principle and have advised them about it. So why they’re still filing an appeal is probably because they want some money back. Also because they have staked everything here on this case. So unless the Japanese decided to sign over the rights to the titles they’re suing for, they have nothing to hit you with.
Don’t worry and know that Odex is the one with the harder case to fight.
Results are out!
http://survey.darkmirage.com/
Thx darkmirage. This survey represents the Singapore Anime Community well and could possibly shape people’s opinions and views in future.
@useract75
“Third, from tjhan’s interview with Peter Go (in Riuva), it appears that Odex directors aren’t the money grubbers we thought they were. In other words, they’re not out to seek compensation for money lost, but are on a “cleansing†crusade. [ Of course, the crusade is probably the means to another end. ]”
I dont know if u have been following from the start but ODEX has been counteracting with papers against news articles and group meeting discussions with bloggers. All they have stated are mostly blanket claims against proven facts.
@E: This further proves my point. If they were really out for money, they must have been total retards to piss off their customer base so thoroughly and then do a total revamp and upgrade of their business. Who’d buy their products – as DM’s survey results indicate and as anyone with an ounce of common sense would instinctively know?
No. They’re out on a self-proclaimed crusade to make SG a totally download-free anime hub. Purge the human body of all bacteria and it’ll be healthy as a fiddle (read “Andromeda Strain”, anyone?), yeah, right. Someone compared Peter Go with Light Yagami, and I’ve to give the guy a thumbs-up for the comparison.
But this is not faint praise for them – it just goes how far off the deep end they’ve fallen. Look at it this way: consider airplane hijackers. Some are just out to get money or freedom: these are the easy ones to handle, while the tough ones are the religious fundamentalists: they don’t listen to reason, rational thought or compromise. They’ve a mission and they’re sure as hell to stick to it.
@JayF
My hats off: you argued your case well. Assuming what you said about cross jurisdiction and such, the Japanese reps do face an extremely steep uphill task launching a civil suit here.
However, I wasn’t aware Toei made such an official comment. If they did, this is even more grounds for concern. One wonders what Odex has been feeding those Japanese to actually get them in such a frenzy over a tiny island nation (not that Japan isn’t an island nation, but nvm).
* All figures were pulled by them.
* Peter’s claim in the papers and sgcafe that anime killed the anime industry in Korea – I simply cannot find any independent source for such a claim. Sounds totally fishy.
* Peter claimed that animetech went bust due to piracy. But last night when I checked, it was still doing very well – albeit based in Malaysia and not Singapore.
Anyway, could some kind soul point me to a link for Toei’s commitment? Thanks.
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