Question of the Hour: Who Hired BayTSP?
EDIT! It looks like Odex is the one behind BayTSP, at least for the French user. So it seems likely that Odex is behind the Comcast notices as well, or else two groups hired BayTSP at the same time, which would be a bit of a coinkidink. Or else the Comcast notices aren’t coming from BayTSP, which is also possible, but still, the timing is awfully similar. Hm!
So! People have been reporting on the AnimeSuki forums that they’ve been receiving DMCA notices from Comcast regarding the downloads of currently-unlicensed series (Shugo Chara!, Gundam 00, Suteki Tantei Labyrinth, Seto no Hanayome, Nagasarete Airantou, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai).
Another user in France apparently got a letter from their ISP forwarded directly from BayTSP which complained about FUNimation-licensed Ouran High School Host Club and Shugo Chara! The Comcast letters also say that they “received a notification by a copyright owner, or its authorized agent” about the infringement, so it seems likely to me that these notices are also coming from BayTSP (and it looks like the people on AnimeSuki feel the same way).
BayTSP is a California-based private copyright enforcement company. Which means someone had to hire them to look into this. Whodunnit? Well, there are plenty of possibilities…
- JASRAC: The Japanese Society for the Rights of Authors, Composers, and Publishers expanded to include anime earlier this year, the group has taken on YouTube (in 2006, for music, not anime) and probably has the direct backing of the Japanese studios, so it seems pretty plausible that they’d be proactive in protecting anime copyrights. But I’m surprised they wouldn’t have said something if they were doing this.
- Odex: I’m not actually sure if it’s even plausible for a Singapore licensor to have any standing here, but apparently they were mentioned in the letter that the French user received. Odex certainly is pushing against BitTorrent downloads in Singapore and also has direct backing from Japanese companies, who went to Singapore to declare that Odex was their agent in the matter after a judge ruled that Odex couldn’t sue for copyright violation because they weren’t the original copyright holders.
- U.S. Anime Licensors: Remember when FUNimation sent out C&D letters to fansubbers regarding Romeo x Juliet on behalf of Gonzo? It seems to me that the Japanese studios would be better off going through the U.S. studios in that fashion than making use of Odex if they wanted to handle it themselves, but since the shows are all from different studios and are shows that, if licensed, would probably go to several different companies (Sunrise’s Gundam 00 to Bandai Entertainment, natch, and I’d guess Satelight’s Shugo Chara! to FUNi)– so unless the Japanese studios united AND the American studios united, I’m not sure how likely this would be.
- The U.S. Government: Well, it COULD be a response to the Japanese government’s request that (among other things) the U.S. government fight against the downloaders. But the government being that quick and efficient? I’m a little skeptical.
- And finally…the Japanese studios themselves: Well, honestly it seems more likely to me that they’d be going through a group like JASRAC than grouping together themselves and hiring BayTSP, but I suppose it’s possible.
There are probably other possibilities– and note that this is all my speculation; you really should read the full post for all the details –but these are the ones that seem the most plausible to me.
I have been cruising around the various sites all morning looking at this. As usual, cries of “DOOMSDAY!” to “Eh. Not gonna affect me none cause I BUY all my anime.”
I haven’t gotten my letter yet (and I D/L a lot of fansub stuff), but I figure it will only be a matter of time.
And, not to start a fire here, but I tend to wonder how much something like stopping the fansubbers would hurt the anme community. Granted, I don’t D/L dubbed stuff (who wants to anyways?) but I will admit to keeping up on a few licensed series like Bleach and One Piece, and if I really don’t want to wait for them to get caught up, so i wouldn’t buy them until I got to where they were caught up, which could be a few years from now. Most of the stuff I buy is stuff that I see from fansub viewings and want to get them for my collection like Eureka Seven, FMA, and the FMP series. But I really doubt I would have gotten them if I hadn’t seen them fansubbed first.
Oh well. *pulls up a chair and popcorn* Let’s see where this goes.
Has anyone heard of the subgroups being contacted? It seems strange that all we’ve heard about was downloaders receiving messages. I haven’t heard anything from Oom about this, so I assume we haven’t received any kind of threats (or maybe they’ve already got him locked away in a secret prison reserved for fansubbers??? It’s been more than a week since I last received a script.). If I hear anything from Oom, I’ll let you know.
@Todd: I did see a couple of people suggesting that this was the beginning of the end of everything, but hey, if you holler that out every time something happens eventually you might be right, I guess. ;)
@Kitsune: I haven’t heard anything about sub groups being contacted within this particular event; there are cases of cease and desist orders being sent out in the past, of course.
Yeah, I just heard from Oom and nothing is going on on that end. The whole thing sounds a) suspicious (Singapore???), and b) useless. Probably just a scare.
@Kitsune: Well, a) NONE of the letters threaten any kind of legal action, they seem to be more of a warning (the French letter requests that the ISP take action against the user and the Comcast letters tell users more or less that “hey we noticed you downloading stuff illegally, quit that shit!”
And b) I wouldn’t be too “suspicious” of Odex– they DO have the legitimate backing of many Japanese studios in their court cases in Singapore. It’s probable that they’re doing this in cooperation with (or possibly at the behest of) Japanese studios.
That said, I *do* think it’s more of a scare tactic than anything. But given the Japanese government’s requests to clamp down on downloading and now this, I’d still recommend dropping BitTorrent for the time being.
I’m not questioning the legitimacy Odex at all—I’m wondering about whether a company from Singapore would actually pursue a few foreigners in their home countries where they wouldn’t have any jurisdiction. It seems more work than it’s worth, and I’m also curious about the legitimacy of the US aspect of this all. It just feels like a hoax to me. I haven’t been keeping up with the AnimeSuki forum since I left work, today, though.
@Kitsune, if it’s a hoax, it’s a pretty damn good one.
[...] Odex employee has confirmed to the blog Dark Mirage that BayTSP made a mistake with those letters– the whole thing was a big bad [...]