Japanese Anime Companies Sue Singaporean Illegal Downloaders

by dtshyk
Nov 25, 2008 4:38 PM | 22 Comments

According to NNA Asia news, five Japanese anime related companies: TV Tokyo, Showgate, Geneon Entertainment, GDH and Sunrise, sued Singaporean internet users who downloaded illegally shared anime.
The four companies have been chasing and giving warnings to the illegal downloaders using a data tracking software developed by a US company BayTSP.com. They sued four users, who didn't reply to the warning before the deadline. If the defendants lose the suit, they will be fined 30,000 - 35,000 Singapore dollars
($1 = S$1.5) at the maximum for violating the Singaporean copyright law.

Source: NNA.Asia

20 of 22 Comments Recent Comments

Leon-Gun said:

SoulCandy said:
I've realized I've stopped downloading anime YEARS ago.

Buldozer said:
its just hard not to download.
I live in Portugal. Theres no anime on tvs, just 1 or 2 shows.
And the anime dvds on sale are few and way expensive. if i want to see any anime i need to download it.

But every anime download website is illegal? or is there legal websites for that?

In January Crunchyroll will be legal. And free for those who don't want to pay :O I'm one of those who are gonna pay though.

Actually, that's not entirely correct. Low Quality Streams will be free, after one week of initial release. High Quality Downloads will require payment.

high quality animu that you have to pay for is only those licensed ones. >.>

Dec 29, 2008 10:17 PM by Maora

SoulCandy said:
I've realized I've stopped downloading anime YEARS ago.

In January Crunchyroll will be legal. And free for those who don't want to pay :O I'm one of those who are gonna pay though.

Actually, that's not entirely correct. Low Quality Streams will be free, after one week of initial release. High Quality Downloads will require payment.

Dec 29, 2008 7:46 PM by Leon-Gun

I've realized I've stopped downloading anime YEARS ago.

In January Crunchyroll will be legal. And free for those who don't want to pay :O I'm one of those who are gonna pay though.

Dec 29, 2008 2:44 AM by SoulCandy

its just hard not to download.
I live in Portugal. Theres no anime on tvs, just 1 or 2 shows.
And the anime dvds on sale are few and way expensive. if i want to see any anime i need to download it.

But every anime download website is illegal? or is there legal websites for that?

Dec 25, 2008 10:17 AM by _Kusuriuri_

Lmao..what about the 200,000 AMVs across video sharing sites, 1 million distributors, more than 2 million downloaders..that you can just google up?

This tactic just fails miserably..

Dec 21, 2008 1:36 PM by Nequam

Drunk_Samurai said:
That BayTSP thing is stupid.

"How do I take care of this and what do I need to do?

Getting this resolved is easy. Find and remove the file from your computer and use the link or email address provided in the notice to reply to BayTSP that the infringing file is removed. Replying to the notice is essential in resolving the issue. If you have problems please use the contact information at the end of this FAQ."

All you have to do is claim you deleted it then just keep it.

This sounds so damn frail that I'm not even sure it can hold for long. Well, much like every case for "illegal downloading" I've seen though. The only cases that stick are the ones done against people who actually sell CD's and DVD's illegally. Anything else just kind of falls. I was actually pretty damn pissed at how the Music Industry deliberately seek out teenagers and the like to almost ensure the case gets settled out of court.

Dec 3, 2008 5:33 AM by Leon-Gun

That BayTSP thing is stupid.

"How do I take care of this and what do I need to do?

Getting this resolved is easy. Find and remove the file from your computer and use the link or email address provided in the notice to reply to BayTSP that the infringing file is removed. Replying to the notice is essential in resolving the issue. If you have problems please use the contact information at the end of this FAQ."

All you have to do is claim you deleted it then just keep it.

Dec 3, 2008 12:56 AM by Drunk_Samurai

Their fault for getting caught lol

Dec 1, 2008 7:14 AM by Icy-nee-san

This thread gives me some hope for the future, lots of people with similar ideas to me. I too download anime, I too buy it afterwards if and only if it is worth my money, and I too see no sense behind this move. I would have thought that the Odex debacle would have taught Singapore and the anime industry all it needs to know about this whole issue. Every time this nasty, punitive and ill-thought-out idiocy happens it only seems more clear that the ones at fault are not the people who break the law, but the ones who made it and the ones who failed to keep it up to date.

Presumably the charge against them is that they downloaded the anime illegally, and to beat it they simply have to prove that there is reasonable doubt that they were the ones who did in fact download it. That much is relatively easy to do - there's that thing where people purposefully fooled an ISP into sending a warning letter to a network printer because they faked the printer's IP address, and then of course there's the wireless router defence. Sounds like reasonable doubt to me.

Dec 1, 2008 3:11 AM by YourMessageHere

Bluesnow said:

Roxkis said:
See!! Before I used to downl**d anime for my own enjoyment, but now I'm going to do it out of spite!

I don't know why companies sue people for downloading.
Most people who illegally download media never intend on buying it
anyway.

Actually... I have a better chance of buying it after Viewing it illegallyxD
Because I would NEVER buy something I didn't see first... and 99% of anime will never be aired on TV over here.

At the same time I only intend on buying quality stuff... Which makes me wonder why they're legally streaming shows like Naruto >.>
Not that I hate Naruto... But its not worth buying. I really don't think its going to increase the amount of people buying it...

I'm not for Illegal downloading... I buy when I can...
But Illegal downloading won't go away till they erase their own flaws...

I stream 99.9% of the anime i watch, vary rarely will i Dl it. I really agree most of the anime i watch will never make it here in the US. and if they did sell a subbed version dvd here right after the end of a release say like at $10. i would be all up on that. I hate to see these company's lose money but to what end. If i had to wait like a year or more to see just what gets licensed here, or could never watch some of these great works, in which people have driven their heart and soul into, it would break my heart. anime should be watched, and its us fans who really push sales, not only by our own buying habits, but through our undying effort to promote the shows we love.

If these companys would only figure that out and give us the chance, hire the fansub groups, post with the commercials intact, and let the free flow of anime come across the big blue, anime might actually truly grow here to be a bigger industry than in japan, instead a niche market.

Nov 28, 2008 9:23 PM by Cloudrayne

Bluesnow said:
Actually... I have a better chance of buying it after Viewing it illegallyxD
Because I would NEVER buy something I didn't see first... and 99% of anime will never be aired on TV over here.

Because I'm too lazy to retype: [link]. tl;dr: I agree.

Nov 26, 2008 8:56 PM by JadeMatrix

Oh poor singaporean guys... But this' stupid if you ask me... In fact it's one of the worst ways to make pay to those illegal d'loaders... In fact I'm one of those, not a singaporean one but a illegal downloader I am... No I do not agree with such warnings

Signs,
Green

Nov 26, 2008 11:13 AM by rebwaters

CCZilla said:
I don't get the logic behind this. They're suing the people downloading it? What about the distributors, the ones who are actually ripping these companies off? Flawed logic, I tell ya.

They took their cue from those morons who run the North American Music Industry.

Nov 26, 2008 9:55 AM by Leon-Gun

I don't get the logic behind this. They're suing the people downloading it? What about the distributors, the ones who are actually ripping these companies off? Flawed logic, I tell ya.

Nov 26, 2008 9:50 AM by CCZilla

Nov 26, 2008 5:11 AM by Bluesnow

To be honest, most of the things I download are not worth buying. I try to buy the things that are but it would take me a long time to spend the equivalent of S$30,000.
That being said, are we next?

Nov 26, 2008 3:24 AM by kuroshiroi

See!! Before I used to downl**d anime for my own enjoyment, but now I'm going to do it out of spite!

I don't know why companies sue people for downloading.
Most people who illegally download media never intend on buying it
anyway. So its not like they are loosing money. And if they want to
change a downloader into a paying customer, sueing people is not going to
help. It will just make people like myself spite you. If you want to sell me anime
how about releasing just a subtitle version as soon a anime ends. I'd buy that no problem. Wheres my Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Blue-Ray!!!

(please forgive my grammar....nvm idc)

Nov 26, 2008 2:13 AM by Roxkis

things wont change lol never will never have there getting smarter but the pirates allways have 1 up on the owners n such lol

Nov 26, 2008 1:50 AM by Corpse69

does anyone carry that much money in their pockets anyways? worst come to worse, they will just lose everything they own, which means nothing since it probably wont even amount to that much.

going after individuals costs far more than it returns, and it doesn't do much as to deter these illegal DL'ers.

people will just become smarter thats all. Illegal music and movie sharing hasn't gone away, despite the effort made by music and movie industries.

Nov 25, 2008 7:51 PM by kisami

Oh great...so they're following the same failed tactic the Music industry has been stubbornly adhering to? Well, yay for stupidity.

Nov 25, 2008 7:13 PM by Leon-Gun

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