More bad news for Singaporean anime lovers

by Zel
Aug 15, 2007 12:04 AM | 11 Comments

Well, as most people in Singapore are aware of, Odex has been sueing people for downloading anime. Now the court has ordered ISPs to give names of people who have been illegally downloading anime. People caught downloading anime will be fined up to $5,000 SGD ($3,290.99 USD).

Source: ANN

I have been reading about this in blogs for a while, and what is going on must really suck. I feel sorry for people who live in Singapore and can't download their anime. I bet it's only a matter of time until that is how it is for the rest of the world...

11 Comments Recent Comments

I'm sorry, but Singapore has to be the one of the most authoritarian states in the world. In about 50 years, it'll probably be death sentence for every single offense that one commits.
At least nobody spits on the ground there, eh?

Actually people still do, haha. Despite being small, its still impossible to monitor 4 million people but i don't want to take the chance.

Aug 16, 2007 1:45 AM by Shurtugal

well, the court order required the ISPs to provide the user's acc info whose IP address had been linked to illegal dling...

source: http://bj0rn.animeblogger.net/download/odex08aug07.jpg

Aug 15, 2007 10:13 PM by wenz

It feels like "Déjà-vu" with the Music Industry with the mp3's case and Napster from a couple years back with North America, except with Anime. Wich I wouldn't be surprise that in couple years the Cyberspace would have change a lot...

I want to live in a world like Ghost in the Shell! >.< GO, CYBERPUNK, GO!!

LOL XD

Edit :
I just thought of something Odex can't do anything really. The IPS provider cannot provide the IPs because of confendiality issue. It's like Visa gives away my credit card number to unknow person without me knowning it.

Aug 15, 2007 10:02 AM by theplayster

I wish more countries were that strict, even though I download anime too xD
*has no mercy for himself* Does that make me a psychopath?

Though at the same time, I wish people would be more laid back and open about controversial topics... though I suppose most people in my generation are fairly open.
And that we could figure out a better system then our current punishments and economy. IE, learn to heal other's wounds instead of punishing them for it, and learn to disown selfishness and the ideal that people deserve rewards for doing good and instead learn that doing good is it's own reward... if that's possible.

I'm pretty sure I scare my family as much as myself. Now then, I should petition for a reinstatement of the prohibition already D:

Aug 15, 2007 9:26 AM by asandari

Shurtugal said:
I'm from Singapore and yeah i've stopped downloading animes because of this. It really sucks... I don't even dare to download unlicensed anime just in case there's a problem. But i don't think it will spread to the rest of the world. The internet is not that easy to regulate. Its just that Singapore's "an amusement park with capital punishment". The government cracks down hard on everything. Something to do with our small size and upholding our reputation, i think.

Aug 15, 2007 9:04 AM by rayyhum777

YouTube doesn't count as downloading so it's alright to watch animes on it. In fact, online streaming of animes will most probably be our only channel of watching up-to-date animes for a long, long time to come, if not forever.

Zel mentioned that it's only a matter of time until this course of action gets taken up by other countries.. but that may not be the case too, since our banning of chewing gums here is not really happening to the rest of the world.

Aug 15, 2007 8:08 AM by seraphire

Does YouTube count as downloading? Not that I encurage using YouTube becase of the low video quality, but that would be beter than nothing.

Aug 15, 2007 7:23 AM by cloudtheclow

I'm from Singapore and yeah i've stopped downloading animes because of this. It really sucks... I don't even dare to download unlicensed anime just in case there's a problem. But i don't think it will spread to the rest of the world. The internet is not that easy to regulate. Its just that Singapore's "an amusement park with capital punishment". The government cracks down hard on everything. Something to do with our small size and upholding our reputation, i think.

Aug 15, 2007 2:13 AM by Shurtugal

Poor Singapore :O it must really suckz
one reason im glad to live in holland, they dont do anything about it here XD (so far i know that is). We dont really have anime on tv here (not including pokémon and lookalikes).

Aug 15, 2007 2:01 AM by DareDevin

Damn... if this happens over here in the States and else where... Damn.
I truly feel sorry for those folks in Singapore.

And for my buddies over there.

Aug 15, 2007 12:26 AM by MaliciousH

That sucks. So far in Sweden, it's pretty much only Uploading that's illegal. At least that's what you have to pay for the most.
But if it would spread, probably at least some(many) will upload anime at streaming sites to watch.. I guess.

Aug 15, 2007 12:09 AM by Sobzob