Odex's actions against file sharing were Japan copyright owners' pre-action discovery to Singapore Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to request for subscribers details in Singapore who were traced to illegal download activities of their licensed anime series. Odex is a Singapore-based company that licenses and releases anime for local and regional Southeast Asian consumption. As Japanese copyright owners are located in Japan, Odex, being holder of the Japanese anime license in Singapore, were appointed to submit legal documents and court proceedings on their behalf in Singapore.
Actions
Japanese copyright owners appointed Odex to engage Anti-Piracy Solution company, BayTSP, to track illegal downloading activities of Japanese animation in Singapore, using similar method employed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the United States. BayTSP took several months to obtain the IP addresses and evidences of illegal download activities of downloaders from Singapore. BayTSP singled out the website AnimeSuki as a major source of the downloads and tracked many of its BitTorrent users.
From early 2007 to January 2008, court orders for Pre-Action Discovery with evidence of illegal download activity were issued to various ISPs to request for their subscriber's details. In May 2007, ISP SingNet consented in writing to release details on internet accounts associated with illegal download activity. On 13 August, further documentations are submitted to court and a court order is issued to ISP StarHub, to reveal the identities of account holders linked to illegal download activities. It is subsequently revealed that Starhub did not disclose account holders's information to Odex as they were reviewing their rights when Odex lost their appeal to Pacific Internet (PacNet).
Japanese copyright owners were represented by law firm Rajah & Tann in the Pre-Action Discovery court procedure to the major ISPs, including its application against PacNet. Odex is the appointed representative of Japanese copyright owners on the legal proceedings and applications to court.
After rulings from the Subordinate Courts of Singapore, letters of demand by Odex were sent to alleged offenders demanding compensation in lieu of legal actions. The recipients were asked to contact Odex within one week and pay settlement fees from S$3,000 to S$5,000 or face legal action. The recipients also had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, promise to destroy all copies of the downloaded anime, and stop downloading the copyrighted material.
Some alleged offenders decide on litigation. The lawsuit ended in 2011 with the Singapore Subordinate court ruling in favour of the copyright owners and penalty being SGD$5,000 per episode damages to be paid to copyright owners for every episode caught for illegal download, totalling SGD$125,000. Interest of SGD$15,095.58 and legal costs of SGD$12,263.76 was also awarded in favour of Japanese copyright owners.
There was speculation from the online community that the company would collect approximately S$15 million from 3,000 individuals from out-of-court settlements, but Odex responded that it did not require each of them to pay a uniform S$5,000. The main factor it considered when deciding the level of compensation to demand was the amount of downloading by each individual. Odex confirmed that more than 3,000 IP addresses had been disclosed as a result of the court orders, but estimated that the amount collected would cover less than 20% of its enforcement costs. The company's director, Peter Go, subsequently revealed that most of the compensation payments had been paid to BayTSP and to ISPs for the retrieval of their subscribers' personal data. He justified his company's actions by stating that, according to BayTSP's statistics, Singapore had one of the highest rates of illegal anime downloads in the world and that Odex wanted to reduce this by 85%.
On 3 September 2007, Odex's director Stephen Sing announced on his company's internet forum that Odex would no longer send letters of demand to Internet users who had stopped their illegal downloading since the beginning of the enforcement drive. Two weeks later, Odex installed an online warning system developed by BayTSP that generated cease and desist emails intended for the alleged downloaders. The company relied on ISPs to forward such emails to their subscribers who engaged in illegal download activity. Sing states that Odex under the instructions of copyright owners would rely on weekly reports generated by BayTSP to continue the anti-piracy drive, and if necessary would resort to legal action if illegal downloading activity escalates.