S'porean incurs wrath after prosecuting downloaders

SINGAPORE--The director of a Singaporean anime distribution house has received death threats after taking action to crack down on illegal downloaders, according to local news reports.

Steven Sing, director of Odex, reportedly lodged police reports in response to the threats.

Sing has been in the news recently for leading his company to win suits against local ISPs, where the Singapore court ruled that the service providers had to reveal the personal information of subscribers who downloaded anime illegally.

As a result, those who were identified had reportedly agreed to fork out settlement fees of between S$3,000 (US$1,952.70) and S$5,000 (US$3,254.50), causing an uproar in cyberspace.

But the online community is unhappy with the out-of-court settlement fees, which some described as "severe".

A further gripe, however, is with several forum posts that Sing made on a games forum, where Netizens took as an expression of joy for taking action against the illegal downloaders. While Sing claimed in press reports that he posted the comments two months ago, it was later revealed that he made them only three weeks ago.

Because of Sing's posts, which online forum users have labeled as "gloating", personal information on the Odex director have been published online, ranging from his educational background, online activities, and a picture of his wife, reports said.

One Internet user going by the moniker, "SeCtor7", left this comment on an anime forum: "To give out such comments he is simply gloating over other [sic] misfortune."

Odex has extracted downloaders' information from one ISP, SingTel, and gone on to win the court order compelling StarHub to reveal information of its subscribers. News reports said that Pacific Internet is next on Odex's list.