Anime Downloading - Partie Une

Quite the hot topic these days especially for those who enjoyed watching japanese anime. ODEX is truly a pain in the arse. It claimed that its VCDs and DVDs are of good quality, but that is just crap. I have the evidence because my bro and I do own some of the VCDs by ODEX, but unfortunately I cannot post any video here else I be sued by ODEX for illegal distribution of licensed material. It also claimed that avid fans of anime cannot tell the difference in quality between its DVD and the original jap version of the anime. Well, for starters, I just want to point out that I have not seen that many, sometimes it's zero, DVDs by ODEX on sale in Laserflair nor Poh Kim. The list of animes available on VCDs are pitiable and out-dated.

My take on this? After this fiasco blows over people will just continue downloading. Do you think imposing a $3-5K fine is going to stop people from downloading? Fact is the internet makes it far too easy to illegally procure such material. MP3 downloading is a very good example. Music companies have been trying to curb illegal ripping of their CDs and conversion of the music to mp3 for sharing. It was a losing battle trying to sue the people downloading/ sharing the music. You catch one, but there are more illegal downloaders in the making.

The grouse with music lovers is purchasing CDs can sometimes be a waste of money. You pay $20+ for 1 disc but end up truly liking only a couple of songs in the CD. Singles are worse. It cost $10+ just to get one song plus a few remixes of the song. So thank the bright spark who came up with the idea of legal downloading; you just need to pay about USD$1 for each track you want. You still pay, but less because you are not paying for the extras which you do not want.

When it comes to anime, my grouse is I am not willing to pay for low quality VCDs. Neither am I willing to pay for good quality VCDs or DVDs if I know I am just going to watch them only once. It will do stupid companies like ODEX some good to ponder on how to make money through other sources than merely through sales of VCDs and DVDs. Has anybody thought of pay-per-view? I do not think this will completely solve the problem of illegal downloading, but I am sure affordable pay-per-view will definitely bring down the numbers of illegal downloading.

With pay-per-view viewers can tryout a couple of episodes from the series, before making a commitment to purchase the VCDs/DVDs. With a good translation team, viewers can even view the latest anime airing in Japan albeit maybe a few weeks behind Japan's release date; this is still better than waiting a year or so for the anime to be translated and then licensed to be released as VCDs or DVDs.

Anyway, this is the latest news on the ODEX case. It appears ODEX does not the right to take action against those who infringe copyright, as it is only a sub-licensee. Hmm...