Dallas Buyers Club Throws In The Towel On iiNet Piracy Case

It’s finally over. For a year and a half, lawyers for Dallas Buyers Club have been fighting iiNet to access the details of over 4,000 of its customers that had allegedly committed copyright infringement — pirating the 2013 Matthew McConaughey film. Now it has been confirmed that the case has finally come to an end, with DBC LLC throwing in the towel.

Late last year the Federal Court dismissed the case entirely, with the option of an appeal by 11 February this year if DBC LLLC were able to abide by agreed conditions in regards to how they would be communicating with iiNet customers.

DBC LLC was restricted from viewing the customer details of iiNet account holders, which it was granted access to, until it paid a substantial bond and could convince the court it wouldn’t start sending the alleged pirates high bills for damages.

Time is now up, and DBC LLC will not be making any further applications regarding the case, managing partner of DBC LLC law firm Marque Lawyers Michael Bradley has confirmed to iTnews.

“It’s certainly a disappointing outcome for them. It doesn’t do anything to mitigate the infringement that’s going on – it’s not a particularly satisfactory outcome from that point of view,” he said.

During the course of the case, the scope of what DBC sought to claim was gradually reduced.

Originally DBC wanted the cost of the film, plus a fee for each individual who had viewed, “punitive damages” based on the volume of copyrighted works that weren’t Dallas Buyers Club each individual had downloaded, and costs incurred to gain access to each individual’s details.

The claim was ultimately reduced to just the cost of the film, a single “reasonable” license fee, and court costs.

The license fee became the sticking point, though, with DBC LLC unable to confirm what it would consider “reasonable”.