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Dallas Buyers Club Case Struck Down By Federal Court (businessinsider.com.au)
thegarbz writes: After a previous court ruling covered on Slashdot where Dallas Buyers Club was forced to post a $600,000AU bond and accused of speculative invoicing, it appears they have once again failed to make a case for damages in the Australian Federal Court. After asking for a reduced bond of $60,000AU in exchange for details of only 10% of the original alleged pirates, and after dropping the request for punitive damages, Justice Perram concluded that the damages sought were still unrealistic severely limiting the liability of the alleged pirates if the case manages to go ahead. Dallas Buyers Club now has 60 days to respond before the case is terminated.
That's basically it. More than from the summary:
- DBC wanted to follow the USA model of suing customers after they were successful in forcing discovery.
- The judge said you will get the names for the IP addresses only after you post a bond and only after we read the letter.
- DBC submitted a letter
- The court decided that their request for punitive damages was predatory.
- DBC submitted a new letter only asking for an international distribution licence + legal fees, and only wanted 472 names instead of 4726 in exchange for only posting a $60k bond instead of a $600k bond.
- The court decided their request for international distribution license fees were predatory.
Effectively if this goes ahead all the alleged pirates are liable for is $4.99 + a share of the court's legal fees.