iiNet Offering Pro-Bono Legal Advice To Dallas Buyers Club Downloaders

iiNet is offering pro-bono legal services to customers whose details are about to be surrendered to the producers of Dallas Buyers Club.

Justice Nye Perram ruled in April that iiNet, Dodo and four other ISPs would have to reveal the identities of the film’s alleged downloaders to the producers at Voltage Pictures.

However, as ZDNet reports, Voltage Pictures will have to pay the administrative costs for the ISPs.

That’s little solace for the approximately 4700 Australians who used a peer-to-peer service to download the Oscar-winning flick.

Many are awaiting letters threatening legal action (though all letters must be approved by the court first, as the practice of “speculative invoicing” may not be lawful locally).

Nonetheless, iiNet’s financial controller and company secretary Ben Jenkins expects letters to be sent out after their next showing at court, on May 21. At this point, iiNet and the other ISPs will likely be officially asked to hand over customer details.

"If you do receive a letter you may want to get legal advice. iiNet is working with a law firm that has offered to provide pro-bono services for any of our customers. More details will be provided when agreement is reached on that front," Jenkins said in a blog post.

iiNet will also inform users if their details have been handed over, so at least you won’t have to wait in suspense for a threatening legal document.

It is also believed that, based on the judgment, the damages sought by the producers for downloading Dallas Buyers Club could be as low as AU$10. As Justice Perram ruled:

“It may be true that for single instances of infringement the damages are likely to be modest and quite possibly limited to the foregone licence fee that would have been paid had the film been lawfully downloaded…”

Let us know if you receive a letter from Voltage Pictures.