Külföldi torrent oldalak Movie Pirate Won’t Pay A Fine Due Financial Hardship

The US federal court delivered a very interesting judgment against a Dallas Buyers Club pirate. Due to "financial hardship", she was allowed not to pay $7,500 for the proven case of copyright infringement if she promises two things: never download any infringing content again and uninstall all BitTorrent clients.

As you may know, the producers of Dallas Buyers Club have sued thousands of BitTorrent file-sharers. Many of them were settled for an undisclosed amount, though it is known that the company asked for $3,500. It is also known that in some cases damages hit $14,000.

However, in this particular case, the judge signed off on an order that requires the defendant to pay $7,500, but she doesn’t have to pay if she promises not to pirate anymore. The moviemakers offered this leniency due to the “financial hardship”, saying that plaintiff would not execute or enforce the money judgment so long as the pirate complies with the permanent injunction.

However, this is not the only reason why this court order is so unusual. Aside from barring any future infringements, the woman is not able to use BitTorrent for legitimate purposes either, because she promises to uninstall all BitTorrent and peer-to-peer software. Indeed, the injunction says that the woman is directed to immediately delete all BitTorrent clients on any machine she owns or controls, along with all other software products used to download files online via BitTorrent or P2P transfer.

Well, for the woman this may appear a small sacrifice to make, taking into account that it saves her $7,500. Anyway, the human rights activists point out that it is still very unusual to order someone to remove software which by itself is quite legitimate.