[…] l’été dernier, vous vous souvenez certainement de cette affaire qui a fait grand bruit chez nos amis de Singapour et au-delà. La société ODEX, principal distributeur d’animation japonaise à […]

Okay, impz, I think this is all overblown…

I’m still trying to get more information.

I only have a vague idea of what is going on with you guys, reading the IRC chats earlier (I should really stop lurking in there huh). If it is really out of your control, then we’ll have to support your decision either way. I really hate it when legality gets in the way of these types of things, but I hope the best for Impz~.

Damn it! I rarely watch any of the anime covered here, but to lose anime blogs/bloggers because of this is just sad. At least two other blogs I wander around seem to affected by this too.

I can only hope for the best for you.

In the U.S. MPAA was suing a few thousand people at one scoop by looking at trackers. They don’t even need to issue supoenas to ISPs for that. They Singapore is a couple years behind on that, it appears.

The only difference is, MPAA does not give shit about anime, they just hunt people who torrent all the mindless TV and movie crap, at least at present.

I do not quite see how all this figures into the blogging though. You have many options how to ignore all this OBEX overreach.

#1 - Buy DVDs at http://www.cdjapan.co.jp and http://www.amazon.com. Works fine for me, BTW. And don’t give me this line about the lack of money. You’ll just have to extract more bloggage from the footage instead of skimping over the top of the freshest episodes. It might actually be good for your blog.

#2 - Rent a server in other country, torrent there, then scp it over.

#3 - Run mIRC/fServe or participate in onionized p2p networks.

#4 - Roll over for OBEX and buy media in stores. It’s not like anyone would chose this option willingly, but you must consider everything that’s on the table.

Well, I’m very greatful that you took the time to blog at all. I really liked reading your Saiunkoku Season 2 blogs, since they’ve stopped being subbed (as well as your other entries).

But I do understand your situation. Even though downloading is legal here in Canada, it doesn’t stop my ISP from getting on my case when using Bit Torrent. I recently had my internet cut off, for using Bit Torrent for 1.5 hours, with the claim that it was a “security threat.”

I just want to thank you for all the work you’ve put in for all of us. It’s not exactly easy to blog regularly and keep up with your real life.

Fuck anime, I want to not get in trouble with the law…?
Seriously, stop being a pussy.

If you let this shit get you down, it’s gg freedom.

Singapore, what a shit hole.

Hurry up and move to America Impz, there you can look like you have more freedom, since the feds are only going to jail you if you’ve got child porn.

Yes, I second Lupus, come to the Dark Side that is the American Empire we have cookies.

Not sure how your legal system works, but what sort of “evidence” do they have against you? Don’t they need a warrant to put you on wire tap? Remember the bastards of the RIAA have had a rocky career of winning cases when evidence is flimsy… Don’t you guys have an EFF or ACLU equivalent?

If nothing else contact the Japanese and see what agreements they have with ODEX. This “independently” obtained evidence is in all probability circumstantial at best and may have been illegally obtained and thus may in fact be inadmissible in a court of law. They probably want a settlement other wise they would not have added the last part, depending on how your legal system operates if there is a lawyer who wants to make a name for himself by defending a noted blogger pro bono I say take them to court and rile up the blogosphere in Singapore for a peaceable boycott of the offending party. Their bully boy tactics seem outrageous by American standards and probably would constitute a violation of privacy and unwarranted illegal search. Unless the police are involved the detective may be suspect.

Good luck with your life.

Well, to inform all, I am not saying that I will definitely stop blogging. However, I was quite in a disarray as well as in quite a bit of shock, and the very fact that there are quite a few articles in the anime scene talking about this disturbs me quite a bit.

Unlike the previous scares, this feels somewhat of a more legitimate one, which is why it somehow jerked me into action. I am questioning the possibility as much currently, and I am hoping to find some good alternatives and I am provided by some nice people out there with some really good ones that I might engage in.

The blog in itself is definitely very safe from most problems, since it does not constitute any problems with copyrights and I am sure that we have a strong case in the fair use argument in media copyright law. As we are promoting reviews of series, and not encouraging illegal downloading, there is nothing much that can cause the blog to truly go down at all. For that, I am assured but there is perhaps a correlation of being able to have access to promote the very series that I am keen to talk about. Without advertising and promotion, how will anime viewers know what to buy? It is a simple logic of media economics, and those who still live in the ancient world of the copyright era are not adjusting fast enough to understand this trend.

Despite the many huge mistakes that have happened, particularly with the dealings of RIAA in USA, it is clear that the legal governments are still not coping well with the legislation pertaining to copyright issues. It is definitely a problem with supply, and the company needing to learn how to survive in this new wired and changing environment instead of curbing and using top-down methods to solve the situation. It is ironic that I am doing research on this when it is glad that the support of the fans is the best way and in fact cheapest way to engage people to buy.

If you want people to buy your goods, you should learn that it is the fan base that will eventually buy your goods. Instead of catering to them, you are pissing them off. That’s like telling your customers, “hey, we don’t like you, but you still have to buy our goods.”. I truly hate it when I start ranting like this but it is a simple case of media economics, the good ol’ demand and supply curve, when you are dealing with a merchandise that is strongly related to the fan base. If you do not listen to your customers and get them to promote for you, are you sure you are doing your thing right?

I have never seen negative advertising being effective, and even the fields of political advertising will tell you clearly that negative advertising is never good for a company. A sweet lesson on crisis management as well as the coping of scandals should tell that without a positive outlook, nothing will really work for you. You can keep cost down, but without the carrots to provide for this “otaku” business, you will go bust.

I cannot say as yet whether I will be around (my communication style is to warn everyone about the worst case scenario) but the blog will stay, considering that we have a huge team/army/legion/group of authors still in T.H.A.T Anime Blog. I do not like to keep my readers lost and confused whether the blog will still be here tomorrow, because readers, despite them being online, represent a bit of my life.

I also found my current girlfriend, a very sweet girl nicknamed thirteensugars via the blog, so it’s something that is very important to me. Each comment, despite people dissing/dismissing/flaming me at times, are equally important as my aim is to promote good anime and make people buy the original DVDS when it comes out.

I think I have achieved my goal in some occasions, and I am thankful for that. Wait, why am I making a farewell speech when I am not even leaving yet.

Duh.

So…Impz just wrote a blog post as a comment ^.

You can still blog in prison

…oh dear…. I hope none of these problems reaches my country anytime soon.. So sorry to hear about it Impz…
and… I arrived to this blog not long ago but I have to admit that I love it, it inspired me to open a little blog about my process of learning about anime… and… particularly I like your opinions and reviews very much.
I hope that at some point laws about copyright and anime just fade away .. and all anime can be come free, subbed and available everywhere …. … right!…. I only wish.

Ok first off I would really appreciate if someone explains to me what ODEX is and this “story” spreading thorugh the blogger community.
Second to impz: I really like your blog, you have an very unique style of writting and moreover your reviews are all excellent. In Germany where I live you are allowed to report about everything you want (unless it’s not wilful bad making). There’s also absolutely no problem with most ISP comapanies, even if you download much. I myself had 50GB Traffic last month and since I have a flatrate nobody cares. If you are interested I could host your blog on my server protected by GERMAN law. But well, no matter what you’ll decide on, I thank you very much for all your hard work and wish you the best for your future!
幸

Go Underground

There is no justice! Well, except for the justice in “Justice Gakuen”. Sigh.

Do what you have to do.

As world media has shown over and over, the little guys get screwed while the monied do as they please. Over and over, it is a sad commentary, yes?