Odex goes International!
UPDATE 20/11/2007: I have confirmations from an Odex employee that the whole thing was a mistake made by BayTSP. LOL. Show’s over, guys. Expect damage control to kick in soon.
UPDATE AGAIN: It seems that I wasn’t too clear. I have independent confirmation from a current Odex employee that the whole thing was a mistake. This is not based on any comments left in this entry, but rather first hand information from the employee himself.
UPDATE 21/11/2007: Read The New Paper’s article. LOL.
Okay, now the shit really hits the fan. After months of silence, Odex has resumed its attack, this time on an international scale. If you’ve been living under a rock for the past year or so and don’t know who Odex is, please refer to Wikipedia.
Godwin’s Law be damned
Reports are emerging that people from USA, France, Japan and probably various other countries are receiving warnings from their ISPs about illegal anime downloads.
In particular, the French ISP Club Internet and the Japanese ISP USEN attached logs from BayTSP, sent on behalf of Odex, with their warning e-mails. This clearly identifies Odex/AVPAS as the source of the infringement complaints. USA’s Comcast did not identify the right holder, but the timing of this whole thing and the similar format of the logs indicate that this is probably not a coincidence.
Odex is definitely responsible for the warnings.
Some important paragraphs from the e-mails included after the break.
Club Internet (France)
Club Internet - T-Online FranceName
address
FranceCountryDear Sir or Madam:
BayTSP, Inc. (”BayTSP”) swears under penalty of perjury that it is authorized to act on behalf of ODEX Private Limited/Anti Video Piracy Association (Singapore) (collectively known as ODEX/AVPAS), the exclusive licensees and/or authorized agents of the owners of copyright materials and interests (the Copyright Owners) that is protected in Singapore under applicable copyright laws in force and enacted pursuant to various international treaties. BayTSP’s search of the protocol listed below has detected infringements of exclusive copyright interests on your IP addresses as detailed in the attached report.
BayTSP has reasonable good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of in the attached report is not authorized by the Copyright Owners, their agents, or the law. The information provided herein is accurate to the best of our knowledge. The attached documentation specifies the exact location of the infringement.
Attachment:
Contact BayTSP, authorized agent for ODEX PRIVATE LIMITED/AVPAS at the address listed above or via email should you have any concerns or questions at compliance@baytsp.com. Also please note that this infringement notice contains an XML tag that can be used to automate the processing of this data.
Evidentiary Information:
Notice ID: 61192
Asset: Ouran High School Host Club
Protocol: BitTorrent
IP Address: 89.85.xx.xx
DNS: i07v-89-85-xx-xx.d4.club-internet.fr
File Name:
[Nerae]_Ouran_High_School_Host_Club_22_[57603381].avi
File Size: 370843648
Timestamp: 11 Nov 2007 06:17:33 GMT
Last Seen Date: 11 Nov 2007 06:17:33 GMT
URL: http://bt.nerae.com:7072/announce
Username (if available):
[ Source: bikasuishin ]
USEN GyaO Hikari (Japan)
株式会社 ＵＳＥＮ
いつも「GyaO 光」をご利用いただき、誠にありがとうございます。
この度外部より、「221.251.XXX.XXX」のIPアドレスにて各企業・個人が著作権 を有するデータを公開しているとのご連絡を受けております。弊社にて確認させて頂きましたところ、「ＰＩＮＡＮＳＫＹＳＡＭＵＥＬ」様のご利用の環境から送信された事が判明致しました。
著作者に無断で複製・記載・加工・使用等をする行為は、著作権の侵害にあたります。弊社約款上、「 当社もしくは他人の知的財産所有権（特許権、実用新案、著作権、意匠権、商標権等）その他の権利を侵害する行為または侵害する恐れのある行為（著作権侵害防止のための技術的保護手段を回避するための情報、機器またはソフトウェア等を流通させる行為を含みます。）」は禁止とさせて頂いており（第29条－(5)－ア）、規約違反行為に関しましては利用停止とさせて頂く場合もございます。
今後とも該当する行為が継続された場合、他のお客様や外部のネットワークに対して迷惑がかかりますため、早急な対応を必要としております。
Attachment:
Contact BayTSP, authorized agent for ODEX PRIVATE LIMITED/AVPAS at the address listed above or via email should you have any concerns or questions at compliance@baytsp.com. Also please note that this infringement notice contains an XML tag that can be used to automate the processing of this data.
Evidentiary Information:
Notice ID: 35082
Asset: SHUGO CHARA
Protocol: BitTorrent
IP Address: 221.251.XXX.XXX
DNS: 221×251xXXXxXXX.ap221.ftth.ucom.ne.jp
File Name:
[Formula]_Shugo_Chara!_-_01_[h264][E1719697].mkv
File Size: 147505790
Timestamp: 12 Nov 2007 12:43:44 GMT
Last Seen Date: 12 Nov 2007 12:43:44 GMT
URL: http://tracker.scarywater.net:443/announce
Username (if available):
[ Source: Quarkboy on AnimeSuki ]
Comcast (USA)
Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Subscriber:
Comcast has received a notification by a copyright owner, or its authorized agent, reporting an alleged infringement of one or more copyrighted works made on or over Comcast’s High-Speed Internet service (the ‘Service’). The copyright owner has identified the Internet Protocol (’IP’) address associated with your Service account at the time as the source of the infringing works. The works identified by the copyright owner in its notification are listed below. Comcast reminds you that use of the Service (or any part of the Service) in any manner that constitutes an infringement of any copyrighted work is a violation of Comcast’s Acceptable Use Policy and may result in the suspension or termination of your Service account.
Attachment:
[ Source: aldraek on AnimeSuki ]
The introductory paragraph which identifies BayTSP and Odex/AVPAS was removed from e-mails forwarded by Comcast. But since all three evidential BitTorrent logs share the exact same formatting, there’s not much room for doubt. They were all sent by BayTSP.
Comcast is known for actively interfering with BitTorrent packets on top of throttling, so they are probably overjoyed by this development. Bastards.
Does anyone know if Odex won its case against Pacific Internet? Judging by this latest bold move, I would guess that it did. But still, does anyone have confirmations?
Is this the beginning of the end of fansubbing? Will Odex succeed? Can they handle the backlash that is on its way? And is the cake really a lie? Find out in the next episode!
UPDATE: By the way, the Wikipedia article is outdated. The hearing for Odex vs PacNet was indeed postponed by the judge, but the rescheduled hearing took place three days ago on the 16th. You can read the court document in PDF. (Scroll down to page 19.)
I believe that the timing of this can’t possibly be a coincidence. So, once again, does anyone know what the ruling was?
November 20th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Forceflow: yea, thats what most of them will say :P a typical singaporean will eat what the media feeds him/her.
The media can say: Oh Person A is bad, everyone will agree without thinking.
November 20th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
lol. But personally, I feel a bit disappointed. If the threats were genuinely targeted at international downloaders, Odex might have been nailed down.
November 20th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Misfiring could also mean “Shit! We sent out the wrong letter, that had our name on it!”
Problem being fixed would then mean that they had sent out the right letter that doesn’t include the word “Odex” in it.
November 20th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
How about some archery, people?
I need to attend trainings more often instead of holing up at home going crazy over Ayako-sama’s voice in Sky Girls. XD
Whatever the outcome, how about diversifying our time use? I’d say that it’s a good time to start thinking of the future. Perhaps even studying a little more’s a decent option, no?
November 20th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
OMG even Gundam 00 is being traced? WHAT THE F***???
Darko is it still safe to watch Gundam 00?
November 20th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Bastards.
I hope, really hope, that someone gets annoyed enough to do something permanant- Unfortunately, given how anime fans are largely normal people, it’s unlikely that it’ll happen. Oh, well…I’ll just resign myself to praying religiously for them to catch painful and fatal cancers- It has to work sometime! ^_^
November 20th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
It just shows that the technology and methodology used isn’t that reliable, or accurate, to be claiming around $3-$5k for.
IP harvesting ftw, maybe even I could set up XEDO Int. Ltd to send DMCA notices to Japan.
Canada has also gotten fried, check out the ASuki thread, page 15.
Trackback from
The Almighty Odex is back » Dark DiamondNovember 20th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
[...] [DarkMirage] [...]
November 20th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Aww, and here I was expecting a big show.
Trackback from
Odex out for world domination! (not) « Sekai wa、 Utsukushii deshou?November 20th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
[...] out for world domination! (not) Published November 20, 2007 Anime , Links DarkMirage has updated his post saying that the entire thing was just a mistake by [...]
Trackback from
Josh’s Anime Blog » Comcast/ODEX UpdateNovember 20th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
[...] apparently DarkMirage has been on the case and, if they are correct, it’s not only been confirmed that ODEX’s copyright [...]
November 20th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
@manga: “Frankly speaking, I´m afraid, not for being sued but the way things are moving now feels like heading towards the ultra-controlled-big-brother-sees-you society that just doesn’t work in reality.”
Sometimes I get the impression that politicians just need to loudly shout “Terrorism!” to get any law passed. It looks like the general public and the mass media really is that dumb. -_-”
@zs: Of course there are these kind of logs, until they get deleted after a few days. The ISPs over here usually collect this data only for accounting reasons and they don’t need this data if the customer has an internet flat rate. Most internet users over here do have a flat rate, therefore their logs will be deleted in a matter of weeks (or even days).
Good providers won’t easily give away these logs anyway. Odex is not the police and not the prosecution authority, therefore the ISP may or may not give them the log. They usually won’t give it to them, unless there is a law that forces them to do so. The reasoning behind this decision is pretty simple:
suspected person = paying customer
Odex/copyright holder = annoying third party
Once again I’m not sure how this is handled in other countries.
@DarkMirage: True, but they would have to check the laws of every country closely and not just the copyright laws.
e. g.: If they would really go as far as to sue the suspected person they have to be sure that they can easily get a hold on evidence. If the ISP doesn’t have to cooperate they usually won’t cooperate because they don’t want to upset their paying customers. Also there may be things like bagatelle clauses in the local laws or formalities they have to consider etc.
Well, show’s over anyway. :)
November 20th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
correction: “I hope that the swedish government DO NOT get hold of this…”
Man, must have been more tired than I knew to miss such an important thing.
@ Fabian: I´d rather say that the media is just out for making money and what´s better to have? People who think for themselves or people who take the media seriously in everything? The best moneymaking stuff is the people who don´t think and take the media dead seriously.
Trackback from
ODEX: circulez, il n'y a rien à voir | BikasuishinNovember 20th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
[...] sheriff BayTSP. ODEX ne se sent pas vraiment l’âme d’un justicier planétaire. Quel dommage! Voici ce qu’en dit DarkMirage: UPDATE 20/11/2007: I have confirmations from an Odex employee that the whole thing was [...]
November 20th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
This may be a bit off topic, but I think “Godwin’s Law be damned” would make a great bumper sticker.
November 20th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
… wow… a small mistake which probably caused foreigners in distant lands to pee in their pants….. O_o
… at least those letters didn’t ask them to go to Odex headquarters, or those foreigners would be on planes coming to Singapore XD
….
Wait… Imagine if Odex request them to come to hq, I wonder how many new “tourists” Singapore will gain =D
November 20th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
ODEX and BayTSP have dishonored the Japanese and the Japanese Anime Companys they claim to represent bringing much SHAME to Japan, the Japanese Anime Companies and, their Japanese employees. This much SHAME for the Japanese involved in the Anime business will be hard to live down. The is a big loss of FACE for the Japanese, Japanese Anime Companies and Japanese people working for them.
I have no SHAME or anything to be ashamed of.
Trackback from
Odex NOT Declaring War After All » Thoughts » Neko Kyou’s Anime BlogNovember 20th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
[...] you’re new here, please subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! DarkMirage now has first hand confirmation that Odex made a mistake that had lead to all those Odex letters flying off across the globe. Odex [...]
November 20th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
@manga: “I´d rather say that the media is just out for making money and what´s better to have? People who think for themselves or people who take the media seriously in everything? The best moneymaking stuff is the people who don´t think and take the media dead seriously.”
It’s too bad that this kind of people are the majority. I guess we have to distinguish between the internet crowd and “normal” people. I’ve the impression that there are (proportionally) far more people questioning the things they see in the news in the internet crowd, than there are in the “normal” crowd. The latter are still the majority.
I’m also not so sure if the so-called independent media really is that independent. Over here the government hardly censors newspapers and TV news, but I’m quite sure that corporate censorship does happen. Companies paying for a lot of ads can easily get an editor or reporter fired, if he writes something they don’t like or if he voices an inconvenient opinion.
This is one of the reasons why it’s great that blogs like this exist. The mainstream media just don’t have the variety of opinions that the blogosphere has.
Argh.., I always type meido when I want to type media. -_-”
November 20th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Regarding the Odex employee DM, is he a reliable source?
Actually I would prefer if the information came from the bosses themselves.
Right now, I think I will just trust the employee and hopefully I won’t get a dinner f*** for my next watching of Gundam 00.