March 11, 2008
Odex confused by 'minefield of copyright law': judge
By Chua Hian Hou
'LULLED into 'complacency' by its earlier victories and confused by
the 'minefield of copyright law', anime distributor Odex did not
realise it was the wrong party to ask the courts for the names of
alleged infringers from their Internet service provider, said the
judge who dismissed its appeal in his written judgement released on
Tuesday.
However, Justice Woo Bih Li had earlier ruled that Odex's level of
proof, which had been brought into question, was sufficient to show
copyright infringement.
And since the actual rights owners - who should had been the ones
asking for such information - had subsequently joined its action to
obtain the identities of these infringers, he ordered PacNet to
cough up the names of the alleged downloaders in the 'interest of
justice'.
Last May, Odex, which distributes the animated Japanese cartoons,
incurred the wrath of the Singapore online community when it began
sending letters to anime downloaders demanding payment of between
$3,000 and $5,000.
The sums, it said, was to settle their alleged infringing
activities in lieu of further action. Several hundred have done
so.
Odex successfully got court orders to obtain the names of alleged
downloaders from SingNet and StarHub, but its attempt to get the
identities of PacNet downloaders was dismissed by District Judge
Erneest Lau, who said Odex was the wrong party to ask for such
information and that it did not have good enough proof.
Odex appealed, and in January Justice Woo ruled that PacNet would
give the names to the Japanese rights owners, but not Odex.
