Odex’s Misfires Cross Oceans…

From Anime News Network and DarkMirage:

The American company BayTSP has acknowledged that it accidentally processed warning notices for allegedly unauthorized anime downloaders in France, Japan, and the United States last week, according to a Wednesday report in The New Paper periodical in Singapore. Odex, an anime licensee in Singapore, had asked BayTSP, a firm that deals with online intellectual property, to pursue unauthorized anime downloaders in that country only, and not worldwide.

Mike’s Take: I remember seeing the original story about fansub downloaders being served in the US, France, and Japan and feeling a bit of a chill down my spine. Could this be the end of the anime blogging scene based on new releases?, I thought melodramatically. Of course I suspected in the long run that the efforts would meet the same fate as the RIAA’s efforts to crack down on illegal downloads, and the chances of being caught are still close to infinitesimally small. That said, who’s in the least bit surprised that this is actually fallout from the long Odex drama in Singapore and BayTSP’s careless (or perhaps overzealous) handling of the matter?

It should be noted the US downloader who was served was on Comcast, who is notorious for throttling all BitTorrent traffic, period, legal or not.

This subject has been covered in numerous podcasts of ours, and our general point still stands: fansubs will continue to exist and thrive until a convenient and reasonably priced (and hopefully unencumbered) electronic way exists to acquire subtitled new releases not long after their airtime. I think the MangaNovel service that just opened offers a genuine way forward that I hope the anime distributors will take a closer look at.

Author: gendomike

Michael lives in the Los Angeles area, and has been into anime since he saw Neon Genesis Evangelion in 1999. Some of his favorite shows include Full Metal Alchemist, Honey and Clover, and Welcome to the NHK!. Since 2003 he has gone to at least one anime convention every year. A public radio junkie, which naturally led to podcasting, he now holds a seminary degree and is looking to become Dr. Rev. Otaku Bible Man any day now. Michael can be reached at mike.huang@animediet.net. You can also find his Twitter account at @gendomike.

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