The following news came on the net yesterday and I suspect few would have notice amidst all the noise from the matter of Edison Chan EdiPORN Chantik.
Court rejects Odex’s appeal to reveal downloaders’ names
By Satish Cheney, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 29 January 2008 2145 hrsSINGAPORE: Anime distributor Odex Tuesday lost its appeal to the Singapore High Court to force internet service provider Pacific Internet (PacNet) to reveal the names of its subscribers suspected of downloading anime clips illegally.
The appeal was dismissed on the grounds that Odex is just a sub-licensee but not the copyright owner or the exclusive licensee.
Instead, the courts ordered PacNet to hand over the information to the six Japanese companies, Sunrise Inc., Kadokawa Pictures Inc., GDH K.K., TV Tokyo Medianet Inc., Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation and Showgate Inc., which actually own the copyrights.
The ruling has paved way for further enforcement actions by other copyright owners.
Odex said it will work closely with other copyright owners, which are expected to make similar applications to court soon.
The Odex case has seen much interest from the public, especially in online chatrooms and blogs. Many were unhappy last year when Odex forced StarHub and Singtel to reveal the names of those suspected of illegally downloading anime clips. – CNA/ac
I had told my friends that it is unlikely that Odex will win the appeal. No matter how solid their case is regarding how they get those IP addresses, the hard fact remains that Odex is just a sub-licensee and it simply has no legal rights to press the case.
But it certainly makes one ask if the previous two judges presiding over the SingNet and StarHub cases even examined the case in detail before their judgement. * sigh *
More reports here:
– Internet service provider to turn in anime downloaders to studios
– ISP Ordered to Reveal Identities of BitTorrent Anime Sharers
– Pacnet ordered to turn over customer records
paced> What are you gonna do with all that information you have gathered? Might as well now ‘sell’ them to the Japanese and hope to recoup some of your cost.
spyder> I don’t know enough of law to ask.
xtrocious> But that’s not the point. The point is not whether SingNet or StarHub should make a fight for the case of their subscribers, but whether there is even a case in the first place. Just because SingNet or StarHub either didn’t or failed to contest the case, doesn’t mean the court should then rule in favor of Odex when there isn’t a case in the first place.
I doubt that the judges in SingNet and StarHub cases are to be blamed…
According to some reports, SingNet did not contest the case at all…
As for StarHub, only a half-hearted attempt was made…
Then, wouldn’t the current judgement become the precedent for the previous two judgements, though the information has already been obtained?
Does it mean that effectively, the judge(s) of the Singnet and Starhub cases made the wrong judgement by giving the information to Odex, instead of the real copyrights owners?
It seems that no one will be asking the judge for Singnet and Starhub cases to explain.
Honest mistakes again.
Best part was when I read the papers, Odex said it would help these Jap companies if approached.