A draft letter that will be sent to illegal downloaders of Dallas Buyers Club has been leaked

THINGS are about to go from bad to worse for illegal downloaders, as a threatening letter that will be sent to pirates of Dallas Buyers Club surfaces online.

THINGS are about to go from bad to worse for illegal downloaders, as the draft threat letter to be sent to pirates of Dallas Buyers Club surfaces online.

In April, Dallas Buyers Club LLC (DBC) won the right to obtain the details of 4,726 pirates that used Australian internet service providers to illegally upload the movie.

The ruling was unsuccessfully challenged by iiNet, however it was decided in court that the letter sent to pirates be shown to a judge before being posted.

Last Friday, the draft letter was shown in court and Mashable Australia has since obtained a copy.

The letter opens with a description of piracy and explains how it has had an adverse effect on the film’s copyright owner (DBC) and licensee (Voltage).

“Piracy is the use of the BitTorrent Network to upload and download copyrighted film without the copyright owners’ consent,” the letter reads.

“There are substantial costs of producing films which are incurred from the outset of production and are not recuperated until such time as a film is exploited and made available to the public.

“DBC and Voltage consider the level of piracy of the Film to be egregious and, taking into account the profound impact of piracy on them, intend to take legal proceedings against any person who has engaged in piracy of the film.

“We are writing to you because an IP address linked to your internet account with [insert] was used to illegally upload the film.”

The letter then explains how DBC and Voltage used a software program to conduct investigations to find those who had breached the copyright of the film.

Pirates are then given the option to reach a settlement with DBC and Voltage or face them in the Federal Court of Australia.

“If you admit that you engaged in Piracy, DBC and Voltage are prepared to settle the dispute on the following basis,” the letter reads.

“You provide an undertaking not to engage in Piracy in respect of the Film, or permit or authorise others to do so, in the form set out in Annexure “A” to this letter.

“You undertake to delete any copies of the Film from any hard drive or operating system and any copies saved to external storage devices, other than copyrighted works owned by DBC an/or Voltage that you have obtained legitimately.

“You contact us in writing at [insert email address] to negotiate a settlement with DBC and Voltage. Alternatively if you would prefer to speak with someone directly then you may call [insert telephone number] to negotiate a settlement with DBC and Voltage.”

Recipients will have 28 days to respond to the letter or they will face further legal action by the studio.