Singapore, September 17, 2007 – Odex executives announced today they are implementing a new strategy to reduce Internet piracy of anime videos the company distributes in Singapore. Individuals identified downloading and sharing copyrighted material licensed by Odex will now be sent a warning notice that includes a demand to remove the content.
The takedown notice will be sent to the individual’s Internet Service Provider with instructions on how to forward it to the subscriber. If the individual deletes the copyrighted content and stops downloading, no further action is taken. If the individual continues to share the content, Odex will coordinate with the copyright holder on potential legal action. This strategy involves a continuation of the monitoring of downloading activity, together with the gathering of subscriber details should it become necessary at some point in time for legal action to be taken against persistent downloaders who ignore the takedown notice sent.
“We want to be fair to those who may not realize that downloading our licensed content is a violation of Singapore copyright law,” said Odex managing director Peter Go. “This strategy gives people a chance to do the right thing.”
Odex will continue to use the monitoring and enforcement services of BayTSP, a U.S. firm used by major motion picture studios, software and videogame makers and industry associations to identify individuals downloading and sharing copyrighted material. BayTSP’s service identifies up to 16 million infringements of client copyright material worldwide daily and sends more than one million takedown notices monthly.
“When BayTSP’s system identifies an individual downloading our licensed or authorized content, it will automatically send a takedown notice to the person’s Internet Service Provider and include information that allows the ISP to forward the notice to the downloader,” said Odex director Stephen Sing. “We’ll be offering to work with Singapore’s ISPs to streamline the process of forwarding the notices to their subscribers.”
Odex sales of anime declined more than 60% in the past two years, a drop that the company attributes to an increase in file sharing, particularly among individuals using software applications like BitTorrent and eDonkey, which are optimized for downloading large files like movies, software and television shows.
Odex will proceed with its appeal of a Subordinate Court ruling that rejected its request for information on PacNet subscribers who have been identified as downloading and sharing Odex-licensed content. A hearing in Singapore High Court is scheduled for next month.
“I think it’s important to remember that even Judge Lau said in his decision that the protection of intellectual property rights is of paramount importance to Singapore and that if we can prove our case, we can expect support from the court system,” Go said.
About OdexOdex’s anime department was founded in 2001 and is Singapore’s leading distributor/licensee of Japanese anime programs to retail outlets and television networks. The company has licensing deals with various major anime copyright owners/licensors such as Sunrise, Inc., GDH KK, Media International Corporation, Aniplex, Inc, TV Tokyo MediaNet to name a few and offers more than 200 titles of anime programs for retail and/or broadcast. Odex also provides English voiceover/dubbing services for overseas markets. For more information, call (65) 6225 6082 or visit
http://www.odex.com.sg or email info@odex.com.sg.
