ODEX Anniversary - Japanese Anime Companies Strike Back
Read in the HWZ forums that a Singnet user has recieved a “love letter” from the local law firm, Rajah & Tann, representing ShowGate Inc from Japan. Well, looks like the shit has hit the ceiling fan, quite literally. If this goes to the courts, and a landmark case is set, it spells doom on all anime lovers in Singapore.
EDIT: More news - Apparently, not only Singnet users have been hit, but Starhub users have received the letter as well, and not just only from ShowGate, but also Geneon Entertainment Inc as well. For a detailed story, and a background of the whole saga, check out this blog
I won’t go into the specific ramblings of the legality of downloading such stuff, data privacy concerns, morality of suing - presumably - 12 year olds and older, and the legality of using anti-piracy software, since it has been debated many, many times on other blogs, but what I am concerned about is what will happen, if other MNCs with intellectual property take up this issue, and decide to target Singaporeans, at a time of high inflation rates, high commodity and oil prices, and the EU & US economic downturn that is starting to affect Singapore, what would happen? Is Singapore a big red dot on the map that MNCs will target for copyright enforcement (perhaps going for free or open source software would be good, but that’s another story)?
August 13th, 2008 at 10:37 am
I got hit by the letter too (Rajah & Tann LLP Transnational Legal Solutions). Informed me when i downloaded their anime even got time & date written down dated last year one & added that this is not a complete list of what i downloaded from the internet. They been busy tracking us for a whole year to compile more animes tiles we downloaded from the net. Singnet have sold us out?
Had found out the company call “showgate inc” was a japan company last time name was “Toshiba Entertainment inc”. The letter was send on 08/08/08 what a date to remember by.
August 13th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I think the problem lies with the fact that the issue got blown out of proportions both online and offline (traditional media)…I won’t comment much, since I don’t really watch anime (I used to, but that was like millennia ago) nowadays. My concern is what happens next?
August 13th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
hi Neorand, i m the one who kena the letter..
may i know wat is ur course of action?
August 25th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Good post. Your messages are really interesting. To have a good blog you should not only to post smth, but do it from the heart. You do your best.