Singtel a pariah as judge reveals it didn’t defend subscriber data suit

Ernest Lau, the district judge who presided over the case of Pacific Internet vs Odex, revealed that Singnet consented to Odex’s court order without any legal objection whasoever.

The judge found that Pacific Internet owed its subscribers a duty of confidentiality under the Telecommunications Competition Code and Odex could not be granted the order unless the distributor could satisfy that burden of proof.
 
Furthermore, the district judge also ruled that Odex is only a sub-licensee and, thus, the animes in question were not entitled to similar protection enjoyed by the original copyright holder or exclusive licensee under the Copyright Act.

Judge Lau was also unconvinced by the method used to pinpoint the copyright perpetrators via their IP addresses – that, in Singapore are, in the main, allocated dynamically.

Unusually, Judge Lau provided a substantial written explanation of his judgement, regarded as a move by him designed to help protect the verdict from appeal.
 
In a similar but unrelated case in the US, students of Oklahoma State University challenged the recording industry’s “IP addresses can identify alleged transgressors’ approach” and won.

StarHub, the other ISP taken to court by Odex, lost its case but before a different judge. StarHub’s lawyers mounted a completely different and ultimately unsuccessful defence.