Court win for Dallas Buyers Club downloaders

But in an unexpected setback, the Federal Court refused their request, saying it would only make the Internet companies hand over customer details if the producers promised to charge only the cost of buying a copy of the film.

The undisclosed figure from the rights holder, he said, covered the costs of purchasing not just one permanent copy of the film Dallas Buyers Club but a “potentially very large number” of additional copies.

Back in April DBC won the right to gain access to the details of 4700 accused downloaders from iiNet, DoDo, Internode Amnet Broadband and Wideband Networks, but Justice Perram has stayed access until he is satisfied with the content of the letters to de sent to all such people.

Here’s the letter and script Dallas Buyers Club proposed but was rejected by Perram.

On Friday, he ruled DBC would be required to pay a A$600,000 bond before obtaining the personal details of Australian pirates.

However, Justice Perram had expressed concern at the potential for speculative invoicing to occur in Australia, and ordered he review any drafts of correspondence Dallas Buyers Club LLC proposed to send to alleged pirates.

Dallas Buyers Club LLC’s parent company, Voltage Pictures, used German-based firm Maverick Eye UG to hunt down those sharing the film using software such as BitTorrent, and uncovered the total of 4,726 Australian IP addresses.

“Because DBC has no presence in Australia the Court is unable to punish it for contempt if it fails to honour that undertaking”, he said.

“Instead, it encouraged recipients to make a telephone call to discuss the matter or to engage in email correspondence with an unidentified representative of DBC”, Perram said, according to court documents.

More information on the court’s decision is expected to be released later in the day.

While Justice Perram allowed that the first and last claims seemed quite reasonable, he had severe reservations about the other two, calling them “untenable” and “outside the proper ambit of the power”. Perram picked that sum because he feels that if DBC decides to breach the court’s orders, the bond ought to be “at a level which will ensure that it will not be profitable for it to do so”. “I will set the bond at $600,000”, Perram said. I’m not a lawyer, so I’m not sure of the specifics, but I’m fairly sure Dallas Buyer’s Club could seek an appeal in some manner – perhaps in the High Court – and there is also the possibility that the Government could seek to change the law regarding this issue.

Confidential court documents show DBC was planning on demanding a “substantial amount” of money from an infringer, according to Perram.

If you do not, then court action may be commenced against you without further notice.