Federal Court Rules Illegal Australian Torrenters Must Be Exposed

Judge orders ISPs to reveal customers who allegedly uploaded Dallas Buyers Club.

A Federal Court judge has ordered Australian internet service provider iiNet to disclose the details of customers who allegedly shared the film Dallas Buyers Club.

Voltage Pictures

The landmark decision means that 4,700 people accused of illegally sharing the film online will likely be threatened with legal action by lawyers representing Dallas Buyers Club LLC, the company who owns the rights to the film.

iiNet will have to hand over names, email addresses and residential addresses of people alleged to have used torrenting sites to share the film.

Lawyers representing the company tweeted about their victory this afternoon.

marquelawyers @marquelawyers

Dallas Buyers Club - we won. iiNet required to hand over ID of copyright infringers to the film studio. It's a big precedent.

04:51 AM - 07 Apr 2015

In his ruling, Justice Nye Perram didn't set a limit for the amount of compensation that Dallas Buyers Club LLC could claim in the process, but ruled that he'd have to see any of the legal letters sent to customers first.

scribd.com

Michael Bradley from Marque Lawyers, the firm representing Dallas Buyers Club LLC, told BuzzFeed News the decision is "the first step in the process that enables an owner to find and identify those who infringe their copyright."

Focus Features

In the US, ISP customers in a similar situation were liable for up to $196,656 in damages. But Mr Bradley said their client has not yet decided what it would do with the access to customer details.

"There's a lot of speculation from iiNet about what our client might do. No decision has been made what will happen. But it’s not seeking this information just for fun."

Scott Dooley @scottdools

Imagine going to prison for Dallas Buyers Club.

05:20 AM - 07 Apr 2015

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