[LINK] Dallas Buyers' Club loses second bid to identify iiNet 'pirates'

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Dallas Buyers' Club loses second bid to identify iiNet 'pirates'
David Ramli
December 16 2015
SMH
http://www.smh.com.au/business/dallas-buyers-club-loses-second-bid-to-identify-iinet-pirates-20151216-glowvd.html

The Federal Court has rejected Dallas Buyers' Club's latest request to 
access the details of customers who allegedly illegally downloaded 
copies of the film.

iiNet customers who allegedly downloaded illegal copies of the Hollywood 
movie Dallas Buyers' Club can rest a little easier after the Federal 
Court rejected a second bid to get their contact details.

Voltage Pictures is the company that owns the copyright for Dallas 
Buyers' Club. It has been attempting to get iiNet and other internet 
service providers to fork out the contact details of 4726 customers it 
claims have been caught illegally downloaded the movie.

In August the company got permission to ask for the details under strict 
conditions that included Voltage Pictures paying a $600,000 bond and 
only being allowed to ask for the cost of the movie and some 
out-of-pocket expenses.

In September Dallas Buyers' Club went back to Justice Perram and asked 
to access the details of just 472 customers in exchange for paying 10 
per cent of the bond, or $60,000. They also requested the right to ask 
for more compensation.

But Justice Perram rejected the request on Wednesday and said the entire 
case would be thrown out of court by February 11 unless further action 
was taken. "The present application must be dismissed with costs," he 
wrote in his judgment. "Some finality must now be brought to these 
proceedings. What I will do is make a self-executing order which will 
terminate the proceedings on Thursday 11 February 2016 at noon, unless 
DBC takes some step before then."

The judge seemed to express some exasperation at Dallas Buyers' Club's 
attempts to buy time by requesting an adjournment, stating that the case 
was not bigger than Ben Hur.

"There is no reason why DBC could not have led its evidence about what a 
reasonable licence fee would have been at the earlier hearing," he 
wrote. "It needs to be kept in mind that what is before the Court is a 
preliminary discovery application, not Ben-Hur. The interests of justice 
are not served in comparatively modest procedural litigation such as the 
instant case by permitting no stone to go unturned. The enterprises of 
the parties must be kept proportionate to what they are arguing about."

Dallas Buyers' Club had also asked for additional damages because the 
customers were uploading the film and therefore acting as distributors 
of illegally downloaded copies of the movie. But Justice Perram rejected 
this argument and the call for more compensation because "the account 
holder had been detected uploading a sliver of the Film."

Dallas Buyers' Club LLC must now choose to either press on with an 
expensive appeals process or accept Justice Perram's earlier ruling. 
This would force it to pay the $600,000, which would become forfeit if 
it asked for more than permitted and engaged in speculative invoicing.

Perth-based iiNet was once known as a fierce advocate for the rights of 
its customers. It has taken less of a public stance on issues like data 
retention and copyright cases since being bought for $1.56 billion by 
TPG Telecom earlier this year. But the telco has pressed on with the 
fighting of this case alongside M2 Group, which owns Dodo.

-- 

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
email: brd at iimetro.com.au
web:   www.drbrd.com
web:   www.problemsfirst.com
Blog:  www.problemsfirst.com/blog