SYDNEY – The US owners of the Dallas Buyers Club movie franchise have backed down on the damages claim they want to levy on alleged illegal downloaders of the movie via the Internet.Back in April an Australian court granted Dallas Buyers Club LLC access
to the details of 4726 account holders accused of sharing its film online.
But the judge involved, Justice Perram, put a stay on the order until he could
be satisfied with how DBC planned to handle communications with the alleged
pirates and that the company would not engage in “speculative
invoicing”.
He knocked back two of the four methods DBC proposed to use to calculate what
individuals owed, ruling they were “untenable”. DBC has now abandoned
its push for damages based on how many other, non-DBC movies an individual has
shared online.
It would now only claim for the cost of the film (A$20), a “single licence
fee” for upload, and damages for its court costs, DBC said
Its single licence fee proposal has not been revealed, but Justice Perram has
described it as “not modest”.
