SINGAPORE: SingNet says no consent given to Odex for users' details

Suspicion of SingNet's consent to disclose subscribers information fueled online outrage

The Straits Times
Wednesday, August 29, 2007

By Chua Hian Hou

SingNet has clarified that it did not "consent" to demands by Odex to hand over details about subscribers who allegedly downloaded pirated Japanese cartoons, called anime.

The Internet service provider (ISP), which has been slammed online for its apparent capitulation in the controversial case, says in no way did it help Odex's application.

SingNet spokesman Chia Boon Chong said: "We reject all requests from third parties for information pertaining to our customers. We will release such information only under a court order or if the law enforcement and regulatory agencies demand such information from us."

In Odex's case, as it does in all such cases, he said, the firm would "entrust the courts to apply the law and make a ruling."

The Telecommunications Competition Code prohibits ISPs from disclosing subscriber information without a court order, and a spokesman for the Infocomm Development Authority said SingNet had not breached the code.

Odex won court orders earlier this year to get SingNet and StarHub to disclose names of subscribers allegedly downloading anime.

When Odex failed to obtain a similar order against Pacific Internet (PacNet) last Thursday, people began to wonder why.

Online attacks against SingNet intensified after District Judge Earnest Lau published in his written judgment that "for the SingNet case, the orders were made by consent." He also said SingNet did not even appear in court. Different judges had ruled in all three cases.

Many people, including corporate counsel and Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong, interpreted this to mean SingNet had agreed to Odex's application, thus expediting it.

Online users thus felt SingNet had betrayed them, and this probably fuelled the online outrage against the ISP, said Mr Siew, who maintains a well-read blog.

In fact, when he first read of SingNet's "consent," he wanted to raise the issue of subscriber information privacy at Parliament's next sitting next month.

StarHub, which was not reported to have given its "consent" to Odex and which had sent lawyers to the hearing, appears to have taken less heat, although it also lost.

Odex wanted subscribers' names so it could send letters demanding settlement for alleged copyright infringement.

Applications like the one Odex sought are known as "pre-action discovery" and are used by firms to assess if there is enough evidence to make a case.

Lawyers say they are usually routine affairs, but they believe they may become harder to get due to the publicity over SingNet's response.

This was because "other judges will likely scrutinise such applications even if ISPs do not do anything in future," said Mr Siew, adding that this would be a "good thing for privacy."

Even as he turned down Odex's application, Judge Lau warned Net users that privacy is not meant to be a shield behind which they can steal intellectual property.

"If a clear case of infringement is proven," he wrote, "copyright owners and their exclusive licensees can expect pre-action assistance from the court."

Date Posted: 8/29/2007