[LINK] Dallas Buyers Club abandons fight against Aussie pirates

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Dallas Buyers Club abandons fight against Aussie pirates
February 11, 2016 - 1:29PM
Hannah Francis
Technology Reporter
SMH
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/dallas-buyers-club-abandons-fight-against-aussie-pirates-20160210-gmr37y.html

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.

-- 

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