Dan Warne has published a firsthand account of the Sharman Networks trial process. Particularly interesting are his observations when final judgment was handed down by Wilcox J:

Sharman’s PR squad was there too, with pink-jumpered, bright and bubbly PR flak Julie Fenwick providing some colour and flair among the morose black suited media around her. …

Her boss, grizly-bearded, yellow-tinted-glasses Phil Burford, CEO of Icon Communications was there too. Since Team Sharman was certain of winning, they sure had called in the heavies.

As Justice Murray Wilcox read out the verdict, Julie Fenwick’s face went as pink as her jumper. Pinker probably. It was more of a blotchy reddy-pink.

The finding that six of the ten defendants in the case were responsible for authorized users to infringe copyright infringement through the Kazaa software would have been kinda embarrassing after telling journalists for 18 months that the court would see through the music industry’s baseless claims.

Looks like they were expecting a win. But at least Clayton Utz still had a contingency plan:

The media scrum was left with Mary Still, a Partner at Clayton Utz, who whipped out a very brief pre-printed statement claiming that the verdict was a “win for both parties”.

While the music industry was crapping on up front about its glorious win, we asked Julie, “so did you have a statement prepared for a win as well?”

JF: “I’m not going to talk to you Dan, you’ve had the statement.”