One Piece Stampede, the latest movie featuring the long-running anime series One Piece opened in local cinemas on September 5.

Movie leaked to YouTube

Sadly, three weeks into the opening of the film, film distributor ODEX Private Limited discovered that someone had leaked recorded footage of the movie to Youtube.

In a Facebook post on September 24, the distributor revealed that the video was illegally recorded in a cinema in Singapore.

A similar leak of the same movie also occurred in the Philippines.

Similar incident occurred two years ago

ODEX mentioned that they had "painstakingly rebuild the trust with the Japanese copyright owners" after a separate incident involving an illegal recording of the Sword Art Online movie in 2017.

The recording was done during a Singapore and Malaysia fan screening.

ODEX has been the local distributor for anime films such as Detective Conan: Fist of the Blue Sapphire and Doraemon: Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration.

The distributor explained that more online leaks may lead to the copyright owners ending the distribution of future anime films to Southeast Asia, and the perpetrator may be jailed or fined.

Furthermore, sales of anime film tickets in South East Asia are tiny compared to those in countries like Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, the US and Europe.

ODEX implored moviegoers to stop those recording the movie with their phone, and to seek the help of cinema staff if the perpetrator refuses to cooperate.

One can also message ODEX on Facebook if they find video clips of anime films distributed by ODEX being circulated online.

Top image via ODEX Private Limited's Facebook page