In Blood, The Corrupt Shall Pay

It has recently been brought to my attention that people who download anime are being fined by a certain company in Singapore. The company "ODEX" which is an importer of anime into Singapore has obtained court orders forcing Internet providers to give up the names of subscribers who are accused of downloading anime "illegally". And i must add, where money is concerned, Singapore is the easiest nation in the world to obtain a court order. This small part of the story already brings up many issues, one of which is the privacy of it's citizens. It seems that our nation cares not for the privacy of its citizens whenever money is concerned. Getting such a court order in most other nations (ala USA and the like, aka Western DEMOCRATIC nations) would have been rather hard to say the least. In fact if memory serves me well (and my grasp of fundamental law) don't they need hard evidence before a court order can actually be obtained? Hmm.....all the more to question the methods which have been used to obtain such an order. And all the more to question the way in which the legal system in Singapore works. It is quoted in The Straits Times (a wholly government owned newspaper, in fact all the media sources are government controlled, except cable of course) that "The recent hearing was held in a closed chamber session, so few details of the case are available publicly." Now doesn't that just sound, hmm....what's the word for it again, oh yes, suspicious? And this is just the tip of a colossal ice berg. "ODEX" is also demanding a settlement from the "accused" of up to $5000 and a promise to stop "illegal" downloading. If anything should be illegal it's this "settlement". Never have i heard a case where such a thing has occured. They also state that a simple settlement of $1000 would suffice for those with financial difficulties. How "charitable" of them. I wonder if the fucking idiots who run this organisation of the damned have ever thought that these unfortunates are downloading such things because they cannot afford it in the first place? Are the poor now expected to give up their passions because the rich demand them to? It seems that above all else, Singapore has now become a country for the rich, where the poor will forever be expected stay in the cycle of poverty. If anything this heavy-handed method is the most ridiculous one ever. A warning should have been good enough as it would deter the "accused" from downloading anything as they would now know that their actions are far from secure and private. Besides the products that this "ODEX" provides is far from satisfactory. For one they're still in the VCD formats, who the shit buys VCD's anymore?And some of them have been dubbed to chinese or english. Would i want to fething watch JAPANESE anime if the characters are farking speaking chinese or english? I think not, if anything it isn't original anymore. And for those that are in japanese some of them only have chinese subtitles. I suppose everyone who watches anime is now expected to be extremely proficient in chinese? No wonder the quality of the english language is going down the loo in Singapore. And there is also the strong point where they don't bring in anime that people actually want to watch but some crap-arsed titles. And new titles released are few and infrequent. Not to mention there is also the risk of censorship by our oh so vigilant censorship board. Now tell me, would anyone in their right mind want to purchase such sub-standard goods? If anything the only case that should be made is against "ODEX" by the consumers association of singapore on their sub-standard goods. While some citizens of certain nations are afraid that their respective home countries are fast becoming surveillance states, there is already one such nation in existance, and that's Singapore. If the courts can easily issue such a court order over such a small matter which is an obvious and blatant invasion of the right to privacy, what else are the courts capable of? On just one such occasion, someone was arrested for posting some derogatory remarks on their blog. It seems that the freedom to think and to express our views privately will soon be all but just a dream.
"Why kill the heretic? Rather, why not?"