Odex Pt. Ltd has successfully convinced the High Court in Singapore to order an ISP turn over the identities of users that used BitTorrent to download anime. This could be a big precedent in the growing battle against anime piracy.

Odex Pt. Ltd is a Singapore-based company that distributes anime in South East Asia. They own distribution licenses to many of the most popular anime series including Bleach and Full Metal Alchemist. They’re one of the few companies in the world to really take an RIAA-like stance against file sharing piracy, and this latest decision is a big victory for them.

Odex has been pursuing file sharers since last year when they convinced a Singapore ISP to release the identites of over 1000 BitTorrent users that were illegally sharing anime. Stephen Sing, a director at Odex, has been the most vocal anti-piracy icon at the company. He has been dubbed “the most hated main in Singapore’s anime community”, and he’s even received death threats.

I’ve written about the pros and cons of anime piracy in my article, Anime Fansubs: Harmful or Helpful?. Back then I talked about the potential for anime sharing to help promote anime stateside and give US distributors indications on which series they may want to license next. However, the anime community can’t ignore the fact that piracy IS hurting the business. One wonders if the anime distributors and produces will address the problem in a civil manner, or face a vengeful backlash like the RIAA and MPAA have recently.

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