Oct 30, 2007
High Court allows Odex to
submit new evidence in appeal
By Chua Hian Hou
THE HIGH COURT has agreed to let anime distributor Odex submit new
evidence in its appeal against a lower court decision denying it
access to details of alleged anime downloaders.
The new evidence comes in the form of three affidavits.
They are from tracking service BayTSP, Odex director Peter Go, and
Dr Toh See Kiat, the president of the Anti-Video Piracy Association
of Singapore, and a former president of the Consumer Association of
Singapore.
It is not known what the affidavits contain or why they were
allowed, since the hearing was held in chambers on Tuesday and not
open to the public. Such hearings are typically closed door
affairs.
While it is hard to say what Mr Go or Dr Toh's affidavits contain,
the BayTSP affidavit will probably include details of how the
alleged downloaders were discovered.
The earlier judge, District Judge Ernest Lau, had noted in his
judgement that the onus should be on BayTSP to explain how the
alleged downloaders were tracked, not Odex.
Earlier this year, Odex, which distributes anime here, sent letters
demanding settlement sums of between $3,000 and $5,000 to several
hundred people it alleged were downloading pirated anime.
It had successfully obtained court orders to get the names of
downloaders from SingNet and StarHub.
In August though, district judge Ernest Lau turned down Odex's
request for a court order to obtain the names of similar alleged
downloaders from PacNet.
A date for the hearing and a decision has not yet been set.
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