[AusNOG] Dallas Buyers Club vs iiNet

[Narelle]

Dallas Buyers Club slays iiNet in landmark piracy case
April 7, 2015 - 2:49PM
Ben Grubb

A Federal Court judge has ordered several Australian internet service
providers, including iiNet, to hand over to a film studio the
identities of thousands of account holders whose internet connections
were allegedly used to share without authorisation the Dallas Buyers
Club movie.

In a landmark judgment delivered on Tuesday afternoon, Justice Nye
Perram ruled in favour of Dallas Buyers Club LLC's "preliminary
discovery" application requesting that the ISPs disclose the
identities of people it alleges shared the movie online.

In addition to iiNet, ISPs Dodo, Internode, Amnet Broadband, Adam
Internet and Wideband Networks will also be required to hand over
customer details.

It was unclear on Tuesday whether iiNet would appeal the decision
before the Full Court of the Federal Court. They will have 28 days to
do so.

The ruling means about 4700 Australian internet account holders whose
service was used to share Dallas Buyers Club on the internet from as
early as May 2013 are soon likely to receive legal letters from Dallas
Buyers Club LLC's Australian lawyers threatening legal action unless
large sums of money are paid for breach of copyright.

This occurred in the US, where legal action was threatened against
account holders claiming they were liable for damages of up to
$US150,000 ($196,656) in court unless settlement fees of up to $US7000
($9171) were paid. This practice is commonly referred to as
"speculative invoicing".

But in a win for iiNet and the other ISPs, the judge ordered that any
letters sent to ISP customers must first be seen by him.

The judge also ordered that the privacy of individuals should be
protected, meaning Dallas Buyers Club cannot disclose the identities
of letter recipients.

etc at:

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/dallas-buyers-club-slays-iinet-in-landmark-piracy-case-20150407-1mey38.html


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Narelle
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