Is bittorrent still legal in singapore ???

Illuga · newbie! Joined: Jun 14, 2004 Posts: 28

Recently I have heard from one of my friend - one of his brother's friend was caught and police went to his apartment, he was sued and fined $8000. Is it still legal to download anime in sinagpore using bittorrent???
Is there any program I can use to protect myself ???

Anyone out there please help , I love watching anime but I am not sure it\f it's still legal ....

Question

FreedomZero · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 2:05 am Post subject:

I'm not sure about the legality in Singapore, but from my experience in Australia, certain ISPs care but most don't. Simply stay away from the ISP your friends brothers friend was using. Use one you know a lot of people use who download anime. Some countermeasures you can take are using proxies, not using bittorrent at all and instead using DC or IRC or maybe just not downloading at all if you think its neccesary.
It sounds a bit suspicious to me btw, "Friends brothers friend", are you sure it isn't just a scare tactic by your friend, maybe he is annoyed that you watch too much anime or something.
For the record, I believe downloading anime is illegal throughout the developed world, no matter what methods you use to obtain it.
Bittorrent itself is a far less underground way than any method previous to get games, anime, movies, whatever. So many people are getting caught because so many people use it. Anyone with broadband and half a brain can work their way around bittorrent. Far different to IRC or DC which at first can seem very un user-friendly (Until you get the hang of it).
If you are really THAT worried I suggest you use a proxy and stop using bittorrent, using IRC and DC will let you get all the anime you need.
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rayzcheung · Heimin (Commoner) Joined: Mar 14, 2005 Posts: 53

what i heard is that u cant dl stuff that is already licensed (now gundam seed destiny is added to the list OMG!!!!)
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JOman · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 9:07 am Post subject:

It's not legal to download anime with bittorrent anywhere. You just have to worry whether the law decides to notice or not.

Yebyosh · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 9:08 am Post subject:

The law is protecting the copyright of the materials. What that means is that unauthorised possession of the copyrighted material is illegal and subject to persecution by the criminal law.

So P2P services are legal as always, it is the possession part that will determine if you run astray of the law.

That said, if the Singaporean government did catch someone for breaking their recently set law, the news would be splashed all over the paper by now. Judging that the only news of such a violation against said copyright law so far is that of the games pirate who walked off on a $100,000 bail for the moment, I doubt your "friend's brother's friend" is a reliable case. If you press further ( as in going to find that person ), I can bet that it will turn into "No lah, not me. I hear from my friend's uncle's ah gong's ah koo's kuei kia's girl friend's classmate's ah di who hear that his company's cleaner's ah goo's father's mistress's son is the one who got caught lar!"

By the way, the tentative word is that ODEX ( Singapore's local anime licensor ) is about to release Fullmetal Alchemist on DVD by the end of this March... They will also be sub-licensing the R1 DVDs for certain shows like Gundam Seed and Witch Hunter Robin. So if you are a Singaporean anime supporter, do take a look at their offerings soon.

mortified · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 10:52 am Post subject:

in my opinion the bitttorent thing is illegal even though the anime is liscenced or otherwise. the best way is just to do it legally and direct d-load it
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Tevesh · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 11:11 am Post subject:

The services to provide the anime are not illegal! It is holding the anime that is. The moral of the lesson is: watch and delete.

Span_Argoman · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 11:31 am Post subject:

The weirdest thing is no report in the media for the past three months. Either they are keeping it low-key to catch us unaware or it isn't happening much.

AdmThrawn · Conscript Joined: Mar 08, 2005 Posts: 151

FreedomZero · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 3:29 pm Post subject:

Tevesh · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 3:57 pm Post subject:

Reeder5002 · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 4:12 pm Post subject:

Well i looked into things a tiny bit and i guess singapore has somewhat of an effort to take down internet crime but im guessing if this guy got charged it was because he was doing more than just downloading anime through bittorrent. My uncle used to be an exec at wide open west and when i talk to him he said the RIAA here could care less about the kids who download stuff like anime. According to him all they were trying to do is stop the trafficing of movies speccially still in theatres. My best friend got a note from comcast when he was acting as a server on TMD to stop or get cut off. Im about 80% sure the way it'll work is theyll go after movie/program(including game) distributors, followed by college music sharing rings, then theyll start hitting the major music guys and its about then that i think anime will be targeted. Main reason, as far as the licensing goes, people in america are ignorant of the litigation that follows anime and other forign productions. To a majority, if a major anime distribution ring was broken up, the public wouldnt even care. Now its still illegal and we all have some dirt on our hands im sure so the best we can do is try to buy the dvds of what we like and make companys like ADV who are trying to get us exposure popular enough where anime is afordable.
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Bloodychess · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 5:24 pm Post subject:

I heard you could download anything as long as you have the original copy in your possession.

Original as in purchased

Yebyosh · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 9:21 pm Post subject:

Kudol · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 9:59 pm Post subject:

i just don't think they shoudl be worrying about "small" downloader, yes a it's still a crime but there are lotz of crime in the world to worry about. I think right, they shoudl be catching the peopel that are SELLING the things they download