Anti Video Piracy Association of Singapore

Last updated

Anti Video Piracy Association of Singapore (AVPAS) is a copy protection consortium with other anime producers founded by Odex on 30 July 2003. The association lists over 400 titles (as of 25 May 2007) and is supported by at least one governmental agency. AVPAS is not a governmental agency by itself. It aims to monitor and combat the unauthorized distribution of video related rights, in particular anime and Japanese-related Intellectual Property. The website technically is being maintained by NetroAsia. Its main committee members are Dr. Toh See Kiat (AVPAS president), Go Wei Ho Peter (AVPAS vice president and Odex director), Sing Xin Yang (AVPAS secretary and Odex director) and Yong Yet Yuen (AVPAS Secretary). [1] [2]

Contents

The organisation, along with Odex, gained considerable prominence in mid-2007 due to Odex's legal actions against Internet users in Singapore, which were ultimately rejected by the Court in January 2008.

Efforts in tackling video infringement in Singapore

Up to date, the AVPAS has only been known to have created a website which features the Odex Clarification Article on their homepage, has pictures of bootlegged anime and Japanese video CDs and contains a list of authorised titles.

According to the "Odex Clarification Article" on the AVPAS website, the AVPAS has also been said to have authorised Odex to carry out demands of money from anime downloaders. [3]

Controversy

The title "AVPAS" may mislead people into believing that AVPAS is a government organization or an organization registered with the Registry of Societies (ROS). The AVPAS is also not a commercial entity by itself (not registered with ACRA) but is registered by NETROASIA PTE LTD, the "technical admin" for ODEX.[ citation needed ]

Netizens virtually unanimously agree that they did not even know about the existence of AVPAS before the Odex Saga.[ citation needed ]

The domain name for the AVPAS website was registered in April 2007, three months before Odex started the saga in July to September 2007.[ citation needed ]

About its sudden prominence in mid-2007, which coincided with Odex's rise to notoriety among Netizens, there have been concerns raised regarding the legitimacy and purpose of AVPAS, especially since its main committee is dominated by the Odex directors. [4] The AVPAS website appears to have ceased from being updated since 31 August 2007, which is coincidentally the beginning of the period when the Odex Saga started to blow over in mainstream media.[ citation needed ]

Despite being self-dubbed the Anti Video Piracy Association of Singapore, the AVPAS does not seem to be interested in monitoring or combating the copyright violation of non-anime or non-Japanese films as the only titles listed or displayed on its website are either anime or Japanese video titles.[ citation needed ] No publicly known action has been taken by the AVPAS against file sharers dabbling in non-anime and non-Japanese videos.

Related Research Articles

Anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, anime refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, anime describes all animated works, regardless of style or origin. Many works of animation with a similar style to Japanese animation are also produced outside Japan. Video games sometimes also feature segments and artstyles that can be considered as "anime".

Original video animation, abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV, are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA series may be broadcast for promotional purposes. OVA titles were originally made available on VHS, later becoming more popular on LaserDisc and eventually DVD. Starting in 2008, the term OAD began to refer to DVD releases published bundled with their source-material manga.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fansub</span> Practice of fans adding translation subtitles to media that has none

A fansub is a version of a foreign film or foreign television program, typically anime or dorama which has been translated by fans and subtitled into a language usually other than that of the original.

A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. An industry trade association participates in public relations activities such as advertising, education, publishing, lobbying, and political donations, but its focus is collaboration between companies. Associations may offer other services, such as producing conferences, setting industry standards, holding networking or charitable events, or offering classes or educational materials. Many associations are non-profit organizations governed by bylaws and directed by officers who are also members. . Many associations are non-profit organizations governed by bylaws and directed by officers who are also members. .

AnimeSuki (from Japanese anime and suki is a website and once considered "... the largest database of BitTorrent anime shows" that focused on providing unlicensed anime fansubs using the BitTorrent peer-to-peer system. The website was created by GHDpro on December 26, 2002. Animesuki was not a tracker; instead, it provided links to many trackers across the web. It did not list pornography or series that had been licensed in North America. However, in 2013 it stopped maintaining its database of torrents, and the forums remain as the only active part of the site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shinichi Watanabe</span> Japanese anime director and voice actor

Shinichi Watanabe is a Japanese anime director and voice actor. He is best known for his over-the-top adaptation of Rikdo Koshi's Excel Saga, in which he appears as the character Nabeshin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Odex</span> Singapore-based licensing company

Odex Pte. Ltd. is a Singapore-based company that licenses and releases anime for local and regional Southeast Asian consumption. Odex was established in 1987 and set up its Anime Distribution department in 2000, selling anime in Singapore. It works with Japanese licensors such as Sunrise Inc., TV Tokyo, Yomiuri TV, D-Rights, TMS, Showgate Inc and Aniplex Inc. Odex also sells programs to television stations in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, such as TV3, NTV7, Astro, MediaCorp TV and StarHub TV. Other than licensing, Odex also does English dubbing, translation and subtitling for other companies. Odex also deals in anime merchandise sales.

<i>Eureka Seven</i> Japanese anime television series

Eureka Seven, known in Japan as Psalms of Planets Eureka seveN, is a 2005 Japanese anime series created by Bones. The series was directed by Tomoki Kyoda, with series composition by Dai Satō, character designs by Kenichi Yoshida and music by Naoki Satō. Eureka Seven tells the story of Renton Thurston and the outlaw group Gekkostate, his relationship with the enigmatic mecha pilot Eureka, and the mystery of the Coralians. The fifty-episode series aired in Japan on MBS between April 2005 and April 2006. It was licensed by Funimation in North America, Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand and by Anime Limited in the United Kingdom for English home video releases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Animax</span> Japanese anime satellite television network

Animax Broadcast Japan Inc., stylized as ANIMAX, is a Japanese animation satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. A subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, it is headquartered in New Pier Takeshiba North Tower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with its co-founders and shareholders including Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan and studios Bandai Namco Filmworks, Toei Animation, TMS Entertainment, and production company Nihon Ad Systems.

Minori was a Japanese visual novel company. Their most successful game is Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two., which has had a manga and two anime television series based on it, and was ported to the PlayStation 2 in April 2010. They use Musica as their main engine. A few of their earlier games' opening movies were animated by Makoto Shinkai. Minori is known for its stance against fan-translations and piracy and has garnered some infamy for its actions against fan translation group No Name Losers and TLWiki, due to the controversy regarding the video game Rapelay by Illusion Soft. As a result, its main webpage is blocked for people outside Japan. In 2010, Minori, MangaGamer, and No Name Losers announced a partnership to make commercial English versions of Minori's visual novels available. On February 28, 2019, Minori announced the cessation of operations.

Wee Cho Yaw is a Singaporean billionaire businessman, and chairman emeritus and honorary adviser of the United Overseas Bank (UOB) and United Industrial Corporation (UIC) in Singapore. He is also chairman of the UOL Group.

<i>Haruhi Suzumiya</i> 2006 Japanese media franchise

Haruhi Suzumiya is a Japanese light novel series written by Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Noizi Ito. It was first published in 2003 by Kadokawa Shoten in Japan with the novel The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and has since been followed by 11 additional novel volumes, an anime television series adaptation produced by Kyoto Animation, four manga series, an animated film, two original net animation series and several video games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Odex's actions against file-sharing</span> Legal actions against illegal downloading activities

Odex's actions against file sharing were Japan copyright owners' pre-action discovery to Singapore Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to request for subscribers details in Singapore who were traced to illegal download activities of their licensed anime series. Odex is a Singapore-based company that licenses and releases anime for local and regional Southeast Asian consumption. As Japanese copyright owners are located in Japan, Odex, being holder of the Japanese anime license in Singapore, were appointed to submit legal documents and court proceedings on their behalf in Singapore.

Internet censorship in Singapore is carried out by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). Internet services provided by the three major Internet service providers (ISPs) are subject to regulation by the MDA, which requires blocking of a symbolic number of websites containing "mass impact objectionable" material, including Playboy, YouPorn and Ashley Madison. The civil service, tertiary institutions and Institute of Technical Education has its own jurisdiction to block websites displaying pornography, information about drugs and online piracy.

Niconico is a Japanese video-sharing service on the web. "Niconico" or "nikoniko" is the Japanese ideophone for smiling. As of 2021, Niconico is the 34th most-visited website in Japan, according to Alexa Internet.

<i>Super Yo-Yo</i> Japanese manga series

Super Yo-Yo is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takashi Hashiguchi. The series was serialized in Shogakukan's CoroCoro Comic magazine between December 1997 and August 2000, and was translated into English and published in Singapore by Chuang Yi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MAPPA</span> Japanese animation studio

MAPPA Co., Ltd. is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Suginami, Tokyo. Founded in 2011 by Madhouse co-founder and producer Masao Maruyama, it has produced anime works including Terror in Resonance, Yuri!!! on Ice, In This Corner of the World, Kakegurui, Banana Fish, Zombie Land Saga, Dororo, Dorohedoro, The God of High School, Jujutsu Kaisen, Attack on Titan: The Final Season, Vinland Saga Season 2, Chainsaw Man and Hell's Paradise.MAPPA is an acronym for Maruyama Animation Produce Project Association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KissAnime</span> Anime-focused piracy file streaming site

KissAnime was an anime-focused file streaming website that hosted links and embedded videos, allowing users to stream or download movies and TV shows illegally for free. It was a sister site to a related manga viewing website, KissManga. KissAnime was described as "one of the world’s biggest streaming anime websites". TorrentFreak reported that the sites had audiences of millions and that for a time, KissAnime was "the most visited pirate site in the world".

The Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) is a Japanese trade association based in Tokyo. It was established in 2002 for international distribution of Japanese content and taking countermeasures against piracy.

References

  1. "AVPAS Members". AVPAS.com.sg. Archived from the original on 20 September 2010. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
  2. "Members" Archived 22 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine . AVPAS. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
  3. "Odex Clarification Article". Odex, avpas.com.sg. Archived from the original on 8 October 2007. Retrieved 28 November 2012. Odex is authorised by the Anti-Video Piracy Association (Singapore) (AVPAS), a non-profit organisation whose members consist primarily of Japanese companies involved in the anime industry...
  4. Liang, Chen (12 September 2007). "Whose interests is Avpas really serving?" Archived 9 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine . Straits Times . Retrieved 28 November 2012.