Who is Stephen Sing Xin Yang?

He is one of the directors at Odex – one of Singapore’s leading distributors of Japanese animation. Lately, Odex has begun sending warning letters to parents of Internet users who allegedly downloaded anime without authorization.

Odex has been asking parents to discuss their children’s behavior with its representatives, and in at least some cases, pay fines of as much as S$3,000. Odex’s lawyers meet with each person who receives a letter, and decide on the scope and extent of any penalties.

Stephen Sing came to “front” this whole episode after he supposedly, carelessly left traces of himself gloating about his deeds.

As a result, Stephen is now dubbed by many as “the most hated man in Singapore’s anime community”.

This is very bad PR control here. You want to punish illegal downloaders, fine. However, do it tactfully. It doesn’t helps Odex’s cause if they offend the local anime community as a result of this whole episode. After all, these people are the same people they want buying their products.

Way to go Stephen! And Odex too.

Bite the hand that feeds you.

Smart.

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