Film-Dallas Buyers Club-Matthew McConaughey.JPG

Matthew McConaughey as Ron Woodroof in "Dallas Buyers Club."

(AP File Photo)

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – "Dallas Buyers Club" has filed a complaint for copyright infringement against 100 West Michigan residents who allegedly viewed or shared pirated copies of the award-winning film.

The company has the IP addresses of computers used to share the movies, but is seeking a court order for the names of the users – all Comcast customers.

Dallas Buyers Club won three Academy Awards, two Golden Globes and Oscars for two of its stars, Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto.

Related: 'Dallas Buyers Club' review: Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto give Oscar-caliber performances in AIDS drama



Related: Erotic films producer says West Michigan residents illegally share 'Girly Girls,' other movies

The lawsuit said the movie was transferred and copied by using a BitTorrent network, which allows even small computers with low bandwidth to transfer files. As each user connects to a “seed file” to download the movie, each additional user becomes part of the network downloading the movie, Birmingham attorney Paul Nicoletti wrote in the lawsuit.

“This distributed and cooperative nature of BitTorrent leads to a rapid viral spreading of a file throughout peer users. As more peers join the swarm, the likelihood of a successful download increases,” he wrote in the lawsuit.

He asked that the defendants – at this point, only John Does – stop copying and distributing the move. The lawsuit also seeks damages, attorney fees and proof that defendants have destroyed copies of the movie.

“Each time a defendant unlawfully distributes a free copy of plaintiff's copyrighted movie to others over the Internet, each person who copies the movie then distributes the unlawful copy to others without any significant degradation in sound and picture quality. Thus, a defendant's distribution of even one unlawful copy of a motion picture can result in the nearly instantaneous worldwide distribution of that single copy to a limitless number of people," Nicoletti wrote in the lawsuit.

“The movie has significant value and has been produced and created at considerable expense,” he wrote.

The IP addresses were linked to computers across the federal court’s Western District. Among them are locations in Grand Rapids, Ada, Holland, Wyoming, Muskegon, Comstock Park, South Haven, Battle Creek and Niles.

Last month, Los Angeles-based Malibu Media that produces erotic files, filed a similar lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids alleging illegal sharing of its products.

A San Francisco attorney said such lawsuits have little chance of success. William Peacock said courts have determined that the IP address could be used by many.

“Who downloaded Dallas Buyers Club? Was it the ISP account holder? The neighbor? The daughter’s boyfriend?”

John Agar covers crime for MLive/Grand Rapids Press E-mail John Agar: jagar@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ReporterJAgar