Dallas Buyers Club abandons fight against Aussie pirates

Dallas Buyers Club abandons fight against Aussie pirates
Date: February 11, 2016

Hannah Francis
Technology Reporter

It's a happy day for Aussie pirates: The Hollywood studio behind the film Dallas Buyers Club has abandoned its fight to extract huge sums of cash from alleged copyright infringers.

Dallas Buyers Club LLC had until midday Thursday to lodge a second appeal against an August Federal Court decision which effectively prevented it from engaging in so-called "speculative invoicing" in Australia.

Michael Bradley of Marque Lawyers, who represented the studio in the case, confirmed to Fairfax Media the studio had not appealed the decision by the deadline.

He said while his client was disappointed by the final outcome of the case, it was not the end of the war against piracy in Australia.

"The problem isn't going away; Australia is still one of the most prominent jurisdictions for infringement, and rights holders will continue to feel that they're losing a lot of money, so I expect they'll continue to look for ways of deterring that behaviour," Mr Bradley said.

"The infringement is so large scale and the financial losses involved are so big, I don't think that's the end of the story."

He said the case was "very technical" and centred around access to information, with no bearing on the actual underlying legal issues of infringement and damages.

"Presumably infringers will be happy about the result; whether it will influence their behaviour [in regard to continuing to pirate], I have no idea," Mr Bradley said.

However Graham Phillips of Thomson Geer lawyers, who led the defence by iiNet and other internet service providers whose customers' details were at the centre of the case, said the outcome effectively defeated the speculative invoicing business model in Australia.

Dallas Buyers Club LLC's application ultimately failed because the studio overreached, he said.

"The demands they wanted to make were excessive, unsupported by the evidence they collected," Mr Phillips said.

Mr Phillips praised the ISPs for defending their customers' privacy, singling out iiNet's outspoken former chief regulatory officer Steve Dalby for leading the charge.

"The case is a great legacy for Steve Dalby ... who was keen to protect his customers from DBC's unfair speculative invoicing practice," Mr Phillips said.

Rights holders could succeed where Dallas Buyers Club had failed in obtaining details of alleged pirates, if they were able to prove in court their claims for damages would be reasonable and within the law, he said.

Federal Court Justice Nye Perram granted Dallas Buyers Club access to the names and addresses of the alleged pirates back in April, but put a temporary stay on access until the studio could prove to the court it would not threaten and pursue individuals for excessive amounts of money.

Justice Perram rejected "several versions" of the studio's proposed correspondence with individuals before deciding in August to lift the stay but impose strict conditions on access. These included that the studio only seek damages from individuals for the cost of obtaining the film plus some out-of-pocket expenses, and that it forfeit a $600,000 bond if the terms were breached. The restrictions effectively made any further action from the studio against individual pirates prohibitively expensive.

In September, Dallas Buyers Club LLC appealed the decision and sought access to the contact details of only 472 alleged pirates with a $60,000 bond – 10 per cent of the original amount – plus the right to seek further compensation. Justice Perram rejected the request in December, ordering the case to be thrown out on February 11 unless further action was taken.



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