Anime Download - Partie Trois

Wanted to post this for some time, but as I posted earlier I was distracted by online detective games.

Anyways, there has been no updates about the Odex saga. The last I read Odex was given a deadline to submit the necessary evidences for the appeal; evidences submitted to request for a court order to get the names of pacnet subscribers were ruled to be insufficient and nonsubstantial. The deadline should have passed by now, so I guess Odex would have been deemed to lose the appeal? I'm a pharmacist not a lawyer so somebody please correct me if I am wrong about this.

Whatever is the case, here is a link to Odex's newly revamped website.

I did a quick tour of the website and to be frank I am kind of put off by it. The visual layout is appealing, but when you go down to the contents, they really do need plenty of improvement. Somehow Odex cannot seem to get competent staff. A few years back they got translators who plagiarize the works of other fansubbers. Now they get staff who does not know what it takes to make a good business website.

A good business/ commercial website needs to provide the consumers sufficient information about their products/ services. Take for example the DVD for Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle Vol 2. It was simply stated on the website that the DVD cost 20 credit points with no reward points. Does not tell me how many episodes I will be paying for, or which episodes of Tsubasa are covered under Vol 2. Thought maybe Odex made a mistake only for that DVD, but when I randomly clicked on another DVD, it is still the same. No mention of the number of episodes in that other DVD as well.

And what are reward points? I know if I purchase video-on-demand (VOD), for each episode I pay 2 credit points and get 1 reward point. So what am I to do with the reward points? Can I assume they can be used in the same manner as the credit points? Or are there restricted use of these reward points? This was not mentioned in the website nor under the "How to Get Started" link.

In addition, VOD is costly. Assuming reward points can be used as per credit points, then it costs $1 to download one episode of the anime which you do not get to keep for good. Think Mission Impossible. The VOD episodes are programmed to "self destruct" after 7 days. Okay... I am exaggerating. The episodes will not "self destruct" but they do expire 7 days from the date of purchase. Just consider this, you are paying approximately half the price for VCD, but you do not get to keep the anime for good. Some would argue that one can re-watch the episodes countless times during these 7 days, how many people in the right mind would re-watch the same episode 20-30 times in the span of a week unless you're telling me they are writing an in depth synopsis together with an analysis of the episode from characters development to the graphics to the OST.

Odex will have a hard time getting out of this mess and getting people to accept its products. I do not think offering VOD is going to help decrease illegal downloading. Do not forget, a significant percentage of the illegal downloaders are students. If the VOD is not going to be affordable at their level, then they will go back to illegal materials eventually.