Category: Issues regarding teenagers
Title: Anime in court: 2 ISPs, 2 different outcomes
(link: http://www.todayonline.com/articles/207695print.asp)
Anime: the hottest craze among teenagers in the society now. It is inevitable that many of us teenagers would resort to downloading this anime episodes through the omniscient, all-powerful Internet. Anime series might just be too expensive for students like us to afford. When your classmates are talking about Gundams, about Naruto, about Bleach, the natural tendency of a teenager to follow the trend would overcome his rational thinking. And there goes another downloader. I trust that at least 60% of teenagers are offenders of copyright infringement, be it movies, music or the latest craze of Anime. But my main concern is how Odex is dealing with this. Is it just "loser attitude", as many of my friends have addressed this issue?
$3000-$5000 is simply too much even for a genuine offender. To rephrase it, it is overkill.
From this whole furore emerges another issue: the rights to privacy of an Internet user. Everyone surfs the Internet in comforting knowledge that our privacy is ensured. With the whole Odex rhapsody, users are forced to think twice. I give due respect to PacNet, with its valiant efforts to protect its users from hungry packs of Odex wolves. And as the old saying goes, good always triumphs over evil. PacNet was successful in its case and managed to protect its users. Singnet, however, has disappointed thousands in our nation. A quote from the article: "If the ISP does not argue for its subscribers' rights to privacy, who will?". Well said.
I am not saying that downloaders are completely acquitted from all blame. In fact,
I do acknowledge the fact that copyright infringement is a serious offence. However, all im saying is that in this era of Youtube and BitTorrent, who doesn't commit an offence once in a while? Humans are imperfect, that is a given fact. Odex should take a page from its predecessor's playbooks and just give out warnings to first-time offenders. Hefty 5000 dollar-fines to first time offenders will just make them more bitter. And it is quite the business suicide as well. There you go, pissing the whole Singapore off with your happy fining antics. What do you get in the end? Boycott. Not a very smart career move, I might add.
On a final note, I will give Odex its due kudos. I recognize the fact that everything I write above is rather subjective. On an objective view, good job Odex for upholding copyright justice, but do remember that overkill fines on teenagers do not go very well with the word "justice", alright?