That policy requirement did not exist until Andrew Lee added it no more than 2 hours before deploying his channel hijacking bot.

In fact the freenode policies (especially the group registration policy) make it quite clear that primary channels are reserved for use by projects:
"Primary channels are reserved based on a formal or informal claim, external to IRC, to a specific project group, or trademarked name."
"Primary channels do not expire with inactivity, though they can be claimed at any time by a representative of an on-topic project with the appropriate name."
"Channels on freenode are owned and operated by the groups which register them. No minimum level of activity or moderation is expected or required of channel owners."
"Group registration requires no special type or level of participation. You may maintain as little or as much control over your channels as desired."

In other words, for example, #debian is reserved for use by the Debian project, and _only_ by the Debian project, who can manage it however they choose. Noone else can claim that channel for their use. It doesn't matter if some users wanted to continue using a primary channel against the wishes of the channel's operators (assuming this is even true, we only have Lee's claims thereof), they have no authority to do so per freenode's own policies. Lee taking control of primary channels away from project owners is therefore also in direct violation of the freenode policies (ignoring the last-minute changes that Lee made to try to justify his actions).

You're forgetting one thing: If they just settle the case, it may be cheaper that time, but then they might as well put up a big sign: "for free money - sue a Lloyds insured company!"

To avoid having to pay up often, they'll want to discourage such lawsuits as much as possible. That means making an example out of the fool who has the audacity to initiate a lawsuit that is covered by the insurance policy.

...you insensitive clod !