After my blog entry on “Odex Beaten @ Their Own Game” I was wondering if I had a chance to read the 13 page grounds of decision by District Judge Earnest Lau - the knight in shining armour to the local anime world.
In yesterday’s copy of the free newspaper Today, the latest happenings on Odex Saga was published, District Judge Earnest Lau ruled that Odex had no right of civil action as the company was only a sub-licensee for the titles. His 13 page grounds of decision was released to the media on Friday.
Not only did District Judge Earnest Lau threw out the bid, he had ordered Odex to foot the legal costs of more than $7,000. The summary of the decision could be found on todayonline and on Zhane’s Blog
So what prompt the Judge to dismiss Odex’s bid?
- Odex was just a sub-licensee - not the copyright owner or exclusive licensee for most of the anime titles sold here.
- Judge Earnest Lau was unconvinced of the investigation method Odex used to uncover the IP addresses and pinpoint the wrongdoers.
- Out of the 13 letters Odex produced to claim that it was authorized to go after illegal downloaders, only three parties - all distributors themselves - had directly appointed Odex to act for them. The other 10 letters had authorized the Anti-Video Piracy Association (Singapore) to do so.
- In Odex letter of demand, it hinted of criminal prosecution should the downloaders refused to pay up. But under the Copyright Act,”only the copyright owner and the statutory exclusive licensee … have the right to take action against copyright infringers”.
- Mr Goh director of Odex had no proof that his firm had engaged the services of BayTSP and neither did BayTSP give evidence in favor of Odex.
What made my blood boil was, Odex had the exclusive license for just one title, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed. They only had the right to take action against copyright infringers for that title and not others! You can find a copy of the darn letter here in pdf format. Odex had been wielding a feather as a sword all along.
The other was that Singnet did not engage lawyers to resist Odex’s application. Some great talk about the protecting customer’s rights and privacy. Makes me wonder if Starhub engaged any lawyer to resist Odex’s application.
What makes your blood boil and blood pressure to go up in this Odex Saga?
- The lack of transparency?
- The arrogant Ah Sing?
- Singnet who claim to protect it’s customer’s rights and privacy but didn’t even engage lawyers to resist Odex’s application?
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Great post. This does reveal more grounds for the Judge’s decision and shows that Odex’s actions were based on much shakier foundations than previously assumed. Of particular importance is the AVPAS authorisation part (showing that Odex was not directly authorised as claimed earlier) and that Odex is just a sub-licensee.
If so, based on the Copyright Act, it would certainly appear that a sub-licensee in contrast to an exclusive licensee and copyright owner has no right to commence a civil action for copyright infringement as was mentioned in my post on the legal aspects of Odex’s currect actions.