Did The Latest "Dallas Buyers Club" Ruling Just Save You Thousands Of Dollars?

A twist ending! We love when that happens in the movies.

In April, a Federal Court judge ordered iiNet and other local ISPs to surrender the identities of more than 4700 movie-pirating account holders to the producers of Dallas Buyers Club.

Those users, found to have illegally downloaded or shared the Oscar-winning picture on BitTorrent, have since been chewing their nails waiting to be invoiced by the remuneration-seeking producers, or threatened with being sued for infringing copyright. (It’s a process known as “speculative invoicing” and it’s the worst.)

However, the producers weren’t allowed to contact account holders until the Court approved their proposed correspondence first.

And, according to The Australian, the Court was none too pleased with their first draft.

Turns out that Voltage Pictures, owners of Dallas Buyers Club, had refused to explain the precise fee they’d be demanding from alleged pirates. Rather, they simply described to the Court their desire to secure a settlement figure that included the purchase price of a single copy of the film, a fine as punishment, and another amount covering legal costs. Most frighteningly, Voltage Pictures wanted to multiply those fees – in the thousands – if the user also shared the film on BitTorrent.

Justice Nye Perram wasn’t hot on that approach, instead telling Voltage Pictures they could request the cost of a single copy of the film and an appropriately proportioned fee to recover legal costs.

They would also have to pay a $600,000 bond before they receive the names and addresses of account holders from the ISPs.

We'll say it again: Twist!

Still, this won’t save pirates entirely; it merely means they’ll have to pay a figure closer to a hundred dollars, rather than a more speculative, exorbitant figure in the thousands.

But, only if the producers decide to proceed.

Voltage Pictures now needs to consider if it’s worth putting up the $600,000 bond to recoup approximately $470,000.

What are your thoughts?