Did You Download Dallas Buyers Club? Here's What You Need To Know

Pirates across the country are solemnly removing their tricornes today, though not even that can hide their identities now.

In what could be a landmark ruling, a Federal Court judge has ordered iiNet and other local ISPs to surrender the identities of account holders who illegally shared Dallas Buyers Club to the film’s producers.

So, if you seeded the Matthew McConaughey Oscar-winner via iiNet, Dodo, Internode, Amnet Broadband, Adam Internet and Wideband Networks, your customer details are soon going to be in the hands of some very angry people.

The ISPs have 28 days to appeal the ruling.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the approximately “4700 Australian internet account holders” who pirated the movie could expect legal letters from Dallas Buyers Club LLC’s lawyers threatening legal action.

However, Justice Nye Perram has insisted any potential letters must be approved by him, to prevent “speculative invoicing.” (This is the practice which saw U.S. pirates threatened with damages of up to $US150,000 unless they paid a settlement of $US7000. “Speculative invoicing” may not be lawful in Australia.)

iiNet’s former chief regulatory officer Steve Dalby passed along some advice to those who might receive such a letter:

"Remember that the letter is not proof and is only an allegation… They can't detect downloaders so if I downloaded it but never shared it I wouldn't be concerned about it."

He also advises recipients to seek proper legal advice and consider whether or not their networks may have been shared with anyone else.

"If [the account holder is] not guilty and had an open access point that was unsecured or were very free to giving their password out to people then maybe they do have the defence that it wasn't them… Most of the agreements state the account holder is responsible for the use of the account but there's no formal, legal obligation for customers to secure their WiFi.”

Does this decision make you think twice about illegally downloading that next movie? Are the pirates getting what they deserve, or do you see this as, ultimately, the last futile gasp of old-media as it desperately clings to a money-making model that simply no longer works?