No more backlogged letters from Odex
According to a forum post by Stephen Sing, as of today (3rd September) no more backlogged letters will be sent out. Odex will not take legal action against you with old evidence. If you stop downloading from today, you are guaranteed, by the man himself, not to get Odex’ed ever.
Original thread on Odex forums:
If an individual stop downloading now, today, on the 3rd September, 2007, he will have no possibility of ever receiving any letters from the copyright holders, (aka the Odex letter) as we will not take anything that he has downloaded before this date against him. We will not send any letters to him.
If an individual continues to download and shows up on our investigation we will send him a letter to ask him to explain why it is so. If he cannot give us a reasonable explanation of why that happened, we will reserve the rights to take legal action against him, with all the evidences that we have collected before and after the 3rd of September (there would necessarily be evidence after the 3rd in order for this to happen).
Apparently an official statement will be released soon, but I think a forum post from xysing is as good as any official statement. I guess they have finally recovered their fees. Well that’s that for BitTorrenting anime I guess. I shall make do with Nico Nico Video.
On another note, I just finished rewatching all five seasons of Futurama. Good stuff.
September 3rd, 2007 at 2:08 pm
How many are still bittorrenting in the first place?
September 3rd, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Here’s one :). And I can still sometimes see a few other Singaporean IPs on my peer list. Anyway, I just avoid the series on their list.
On a side note, just to be a grammar Nazi;
“If an individual stop downloading now,”
unless he is somehow using the subjunctive mood (though in which case it should be the future subjunctive, and hence the sentence is still wrong), it should be “If an individual stops now”.
“..with all the evidences..”
evidence is uncountable, hence no plural.
September 3rd, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Good grief, can someone sic the _grammar police_ on Odex already? Companies that continue to write their press releases in broken English are an embarrassment to themselves and to Singapore.
September 3rd, 2007 at 2:26 pm
After some search, “evidences” can be used too, but it still seems somewhat archaic and ecclesiastical.
September 3rd, 2007 at 3:08 pm
i guess thats it for the xedo saga, will they still be able to sell any animes here?
September 3rd, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Even if they can’t sell any anime, it’s alright because according to chua hian hou’s article on 2 Sep 07, mr sing said, “As anime lovers ourselves, we don’t mind if you don’t buy Odex products, but we really hate freeloaders…”
That was already true before this fiasco no? true fans were buying from adv and blue max, most havent even heard of odex. the anime studio doesn’t lose money as revenue is coming in from different channels. but because they were not buying from odex, odex blame poor sales on downloading. isn’t that yet another contradiction from odex?
Anyway i guess all local anime fans should buy from blue max or import from overseas and not buy from odex from now on.
September 3rd, 2007 at 3:43 pm
@kenji
The directors of Odex said that they are “humbled” by the odex flamming. U can think of it as a kind of compromise for the contradictions… …
I still hope that people purchase from other sources of DVD nonetheless……
September 3rd, 2007 at 3:58 pm
It’s too late. There’s no way I’m going to be on good terms with Odex anymore. Well, since they’re obviously fine with it, I’m cool too.
Btw, I’m still not sure whether I can trust whatever xysing posted, as Xedo doesn’t have a very good history of sticking to what they say.
Stopping now only serves to aggravate the greivances of those fined before. Poor 9 year old boy. =(
On a brighter note, doesn’t this kinda affect their relationship with the Jap firms? Hope it makes a big dent there then. ^^
September 3rd, 2007 at 4:03 pm
I just saw their new website. Anyway, I will give them the benefit of doubt. If Odex is ready to improve, I am ready to forgive…
September 3rd, 2007 at 4:14 pm
PS. It has just came to mind that this is an obvious move to pacify the raging netizens. The more I think about it, there’s seems to be something hidden amidst the whole thing. Put it logically: Odex was so fierce and firm on the entire issue and now they’re saying this?
Something’s amiss. They’re definitely getting something BETTER from doing this than pursuing their former path. Something better than getting a few more fans on their side.
If Xedo does this >> neitizens stop digging/finding out things about them. (Which logically follows that they have something to hide?) It may not be the only reason they’ve started this, but it can be considered one of the reasons no doubt.
I am just spectulating…of course.
September 3rd, 2007 at 4:49 pm
@wirbelwind: My point is simply their words is not good as gold, heck it’s not even worth a nickle. For someone to lie and say their gloating remarks were made 2 mths instead of 2 weeks ago, their words are like the boy crying wolf.
If they are truly sincere, why the perpetual tough stance? (http://www.straitstimes.com/Video%2BNews/Singapore/STIVodcast_2526.html?playid=2526&type=Top)
They failed to realise or admit that the local anime industry is what it is because of fansubbed animes. Weren’t they themselves downloading animes too in the past before the started odex? I’ll bet they are, how else can they call themselves ‘true otakus’.
And what of the pacnet appeal? Does it mean they will stop appealing? Or are they pressing forward so they can take more ‘legal actions’ when they feel like it?
September 3rd, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Futurama is good shit.
September 3rd, 2007 at 5:11 pm
It is a bit weird if you ask me. If they indeed honour their word, then there is no point pursuing, even appealing the Pacific Internet case. Even if they won, if they decide to stick to this promise it will be nothing but a Pyhrric victory, as the stacks of paperwork they obtain from PacNet is as good as toilet paper.
Or it might suggest to me that the Singnet’s batch of downloaders they have fined from, at their current calculations, have satisfied more than enough of their current legal costs.
September 3rd, 2007 at 6:57 pm
wtf, so who got sued are owned….. I should have continued…..
September 3rd, 2007 at 7:00 pm
That’s right. If ODEX is going to improve, why continue to bare fangs at them or give them the cold shoulder? If they can offer competitively priced products, I’ll buy.
On the other hand, feels like ODEX is some giant Gundam walking up to the speech podium. And the people squashed and flattened on the way are those poor things who got ODEXed. After they’ve made their way to the podium and recovered their losses, all’s good… they can happily make peace with the world, and awww group hug.
Sucks for the ODEXees. Mere pawns in the game of life and business.