Picture Perfect Paranoia

In Singapore, it looks like the whole ODEX debacle has slowly shifted from the emotional towards the intellectual, with Impz and his ilk leading the movement. I commend their efforts to rationalize the situation that has somehow disturbed and somewhat polarized the global anime community for weeks.

From what I understand, it started with the announcement from ODEX itself launching a crusade against illegal downloaders, who are blamed for the distributor’s poor sale record. But as investigation continued, it was more than that, as comparisons of product quality surfaced among the various pockets of the Internet. Also, the court order raised the stakes even higher, with the anime community in Singapore raising their arms in the air (in this case, flaying their fingers on their keyboards), fearing that their identities be exposed, and money be dispensed from their pockets.

I’m aware that, compared with other countries, fines in Singapore are quite harsh, and the “pirates” and downloaders are paying the price.

Of course, the distributors, like ODEX, are suffering as well.

With their lowering profit due to these illegal downloaders, as they pointed, it will come at a point where the quality of their products will continue to dive down as well.

Now that I offered more of my own 2 cents on this issue, we should look at both sides of the coin, so to speak, before we take action.

Here’s the discussion pool, for those who are curious.

Here’s a guide to lawsuits involving filesharing (which does include this whole debacle).

Here’s the investigation and impression on the identity of the people behind ODEX, as well as the cause for their “careless” action.