tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/dallas-buyers-club-8837/articlesDallas Buyers Club – The Conversation2022-01-11T17:09:42Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1745612022-01-11T17:09:42Z2022-01-11T17:09:42ZQuébec filmmaker and producer Jean-Marc Vallée told stories of human complexity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440085/original/file-20220110-15-10zz1kv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3589%2C2398&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jean-Marc Vallée attends a press conference to promote the film 'Demolition' at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2015. His unfinished work was an ode to human complexity. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The death of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0885249/">director Jean-Marc Vallée</a> at the age of 58, on Dec. 25, sent shock waves throughout Québec <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/jean-marc-vallee-remembered-as-a-true-artist-and-a-generous-loving-person">and the international film industry</a>. His critically acclaimed work broke many taboos and, combined with his unique esthetic, made Vallée an important artist of our time.</p>
<p>As a doctoral student in literature and performing and screen arts, my research lies at the intersection of feminist, film and television studies. In this article, I focus on Vallée’s cinematic style, which is deeply rooted in empathy.</p>
<h2>An esthetic of simplicity</h2>
<p>Vallée became known to Québec filmgoers with the release of his feature film <em>Liste Noire</em> (1995), but it was <em>C.R.A.Z.Y.</em> (2005) that propelled him to international fame. </p>
<p>This family drama set in the ‘70s continues to move viewers with the heartbreaking father-son relationship it depicts. But the film is slightly different from Vallée’s subsequent work. <a href="https://ici.radio-canada.ca/tele/tout-le-monde-en-parle/site/episodes/593617/jean-marc-vallee-entrevue-films-hommage">By the director’s own admission</a>, the film is loaded with visual effects and technical features that were meant to demonstrate his love of filmmaking.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Jean-Marc Vallée and Pierre Even" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439503/original/file-20220105-15-yp1ccr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439503/original/file-20220105-15-yp1ccr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439503/original/file-20220105-15-yp1ccr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439503/original/file-20220105-15-yp1ccr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439503/original/file-20220105-15-yp1ccr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439503/original/file-20220105-15-yp1ccr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439503/original/file-20220105-15-yp1ccr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jean-Marc Vallée and Pierre Even celebrate C.R.A.Z.Y.’s award for best film of the year in 2006 at the Jutras Awards in Montréal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Boily</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Vallée’s style evolved in his later films: the camera was routinely shoulder-mounted, even for static shots. In an interview, Vallée explained that he saw his job as a filmmaker as capturing actors’ performances. Vallée developed the basics for this process in <em>Café de Flore</em> (2011), shooting dialogues using the shot/countershot technique by moving the camera without cutting the recording. This technique, borrowed from direct cinema and documentary, creates a more natural <em>mise en scène</em> where beauty emerges from simplicity.</p>
<p><em>Dallas Buyers Club</em> (2013), which was <a href="https://deadline.com/2014/02/dallas-buyers-club-makeup-oscars-676529/">made on a very low budget</a>, gave Vallée an opportunity to refine this technique. Scenes were shot with natural lighting, without spotlights or other equipment hidden behind the camera, which made it possible to film 360-degree shots. With a handheld camera and a very small film crew, the camera follows the course of the scene according to the movements of the actors, affording them more freedom. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The film ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ starring Matthew McConaughey, allowed Vallée to refine his filming techniques.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This method demonstrated that Vallée allocated as much time as possible on his sets not to technique, but first and foremost to allowing actors to play with the camera, to perform a peculiar dance that places the story at its heart. By accepting a certain level of risk with this approach, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/27/movies/jean-marc-vallee-dead.html">Vallée departed from the canons and rules of traditional filming</a> to provide his films a more organic and unique esthetic.</p>
<h2>Beauty in imperfection</h2>
<p>There is a visual metaphor in <em>Café de Flore</em> that perfectly embodies Vallée’s thematic approach: on several occasions, the protagonist moves away from the camera without leaving the frame. The camera remains in place and the focus shifts to the extras, all of whom have Down syndrome. This is a stylistic device that prefigured Vallée’s approach of shifting the point of view to individuals who are generally relegated to the background of society.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Café de Flore’, starring Vanessa Paradis, created a space for people who are often in the background of society.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The album <em>The Dark Side of the Moon</em> by the band Pink Floyd is prominent in Vallée’s work and the symbolism is not trivial; Vallée’s work reveals the dark side of human complexity. His films are like a glass prism refracting the colours of light; they act as a magnifying glass that scrutinizes and dissects realities that are as atypical as they are authentic.</p>
<p>The title roles in his works have been held by actors who meet industry beauty standards (Jared Leto, Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Vanessa Paradis, etc.), but instead of highlighting these actors’ physiques, Vallée likes to transform and challenge them through their acting and their ability to embody vulnerability and contradiction.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Jean-Marc Vallée and Reese Witherspoon" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439505/original/file-20220105-19-640uuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439505/original/file-20220105-19-640uuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439505/original/file-20220105-19-640uuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439505/original/file-20220105-19-640uuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439505/original/file-20220105-19-640uuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439505/original/file-20220105-19-640uuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439505/original/file-20220105-19-640uuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Director Jean-Marc Vallée with actor Reese Witherspoon at a press conference for the September 2014 release of ‘Wild’ in Toronto.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Hannah Yoon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Vallée’s filmography explores different forms of distress through individuals who go on an initiatory journey, literally, as in <em>Wild</em> (2014) or figuratively, as in <em>C.R.A.Z.Y</em> and <em>Demolition</em> (2015). His protagonists are flawed and in search of meaning. They may have entered into an extramarital relationship like Madeline in <em>Big Little Lies</em>, or struggle with addiction like Ron in <em>Dallas Buyers Club</em> or Camille in <em>Sharp Objects</em>.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DgljcMqPG98?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Amy Adams plays alcoholic journalist Camille in the series ‘Sharp Objects’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Vallée was careful to show their humanity from the very first minutes. His films and episodes almost always begin with a breath, a voice or a humming, which immediately provides an opportunity for the audience to experience the subjectivity of his characters. As for the soundtracks, a key element of his filmography, they are almost always intradiegetic, that is, the characters hear it and they are often the ones who play it. The audience is invited to discover the characters in a different way, through their tastes and their musical choices.</p>
<h2>Cinema as an act of communication</h2>
<p>If Vallée’s films are so moving, it is because cinema and television were, for him, an act of communication. Even during scriptwriting, the filmmaker showed he was <a href="https://savoir.media/clip/jean-marc-vallee">conscious of his future readers</a>, saying he was concerned with providing a pleasant reading experience. From the moment Vallée’s works are put into words, they become part of a dialogue between a sender and receivers. This empathetic vision of scriptwriting proves that the strength of Vallée’s cinema lies above all, in establishing contact between individuals.</p>
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<img alt="Jean-Marc Vallée and Jake Gyllenhaal" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439506/original/file-20220105-13-qfn7jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439506/original/file-20220105-13-qfn7jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439506/original/file-20220105-13-qfn7jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439506/original/file-20220105-13-qfn7jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439506/original/file-20220105-13-qfn7jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439506/original/file-20220105-13-qfn7jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439506/original/file-20220105-13-qfn7jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Actor Jake Gyllenhaal and director Jean-Marc Vallée during the promotion of the film ‘Demolition’ at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
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<p>Concern for the audience was also central to his shoots, where Vallée said he made sure to respect the physical distance between camera and actors (and thus between characters and audience) in order to convey the right emotion. Some actors have done multiple projects with Vallée, showing their appreciation of his work. But more importantly, this reassured audiences. Actors Michel Laperrière and Émile Vallée, for example, played similar roles in <em>C.R.A.Z.Y.</em> and <em>Café de Flore</em>, creating a comforting déjà-vu effect for the audience, weaving links between the different stories.</p>
<p>In the editing process, Vallée created an additional layer of meaning through the use of brief flashbacks that gave access to the characters’ thoughts, and through certain choices that gave the films a more ironic tone. For example, in <em>C.R.A.Z.Y.</em>, a passage from the opera <em>L'Elisir d'Amore</em> plays as Raymond turns over the Christmas table. Vallée did not seem to feel the need to lead his audience into emotion. Instead, the dramatic effect is accentuated by the contrast between the savagery shown on the screen and the dignified tone of the soundtrack. Vallée trusted his audience and enjoyed creating puzzles for them, letting them draw their own conclusions.</p>
<h2>The gift of cinema</h2>
<p>Vallée’s filmography offers the audience a complex experience of decentring, while creating a stylistic coherence between the different narratives. During a 2013 interview on the Québec talk show <em>Tout le monde en parle</em>, when asked about his choice of themes, Vallée answered with one word: “humanity.” His films are above all an ode to human complexity.</p>
<p>Reflecting on his career during a master class, he said he considered himself privileged and hoped that his stories would help him “give back a little.” For Vallée, storytelling was truly a gift, meaning not only a great ability, but, above all, something he would leave behind.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174561/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne-Sophie Gravel is a member of Réalisatrices Équitables. Her doctoral research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
</span></em></p>If Vallée’s films are so moving, it is because for him, cinema and television are an act of communication. He said he hoped his stories would “give back a little.”Anne-Sophie Gravel, Doctorante en littérature et arts de la scène et de l'écran (concentration cinéma), Université LavalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/524422015-12-17T00:52:29Z2015-12-17T00:52:29ZCourt dismisses the Dallas Buyers Club latest copyright claim as ‘not Ben-Hur’<p>The Dallas Buyers Club LLC v iiNet case appears to have come to an interesting junction yesterday when Justice Nye Perram <a href="http://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2015/2015fca1437">moved</a> to dismiss the case “in its entirety”.</p>
<p>Justice Perram had already <a href="http://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2015/2015fca0838">said in August</a> that DBC’s contention was “<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-now-after-the-dallas-buyers-club-pirate-claim-is-rejected-as-surreal-46133">surreal</a>”. This week he added:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] it needs to be kept in mind that what is before the Court is a preliminary discovery application, not Ben-Hur.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790636/">Dallas Buyers Club</a>, staring Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto and Jennifer Garner, made A$2,761,258 at the Australian box office and was <a href="http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/australia/yearly/?yr=2014&p=.htm">ranked 75th</a> overall for 2014. But the maker, <a href="http://www.voltagepictures.com/details.aspx?ProjectId=131e77c6-d02a-e211-a8d1-d4ae527c3b65">Voltage Pictures</a>, is arguing that many Australians watched the movie after illegally downloading it via the internet.</p>
<h2>Before the court</h2>
<p>This is a case many Australians became aware of in April of this year when the same judge <a href="http://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2015/2015fca0317">ruled in favour</a> for DBC to gain “access to the <a href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/piracy/dallas-buyers-club-iinet-case-thrown-out-in-landmark-ruling-on-piracy-in-australia/news-story/d7676ba6308168c788e96be50ace734b">private details</a> of the 4,726 iiNet account holders”. Each had allegedly had their IP address registered for the downloading and/or sharing of the Dallas Buyer Club film. </p>
<p>Justice Perram said he didn’t want DBC LLC to use the “<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/dallas-buyers-club-loses-second-bid-to-identify-iinet-pirates-20151216-glowvd.html">speculative invoice</a>” approach used in other countries, where the studio sends a letter demanding a large sum to the downloader in the hope they will pay up rather than contest the figure. To prevent this a bond of A$600,000 was set. But it was still unclear how much DBC LLC intended to make the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-much-will-australias-dallas-buyers-club-pirates-have-to-pay-40302">alleged pirates pay</a>. </p>
<p>In September DBC LLC asked to only gain access to 472 names, 10% of the original request, in exchange of paying only 10% of the original bond.</p>
<p>DBC LLC intended to gain damages for the <a href="http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/12/federal-court-throws-out-dallas-buyers-club-piracy-case/">following</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li>The cost of a single copy of the film had it been authentically downloaded</li>
<li>a claim for an amount based on each person who had accessed the uploaded film</li>
<li>a claim for punitive damages depending on how many copies of non-DBC copyrighted works had been downloaded by each infringer</li>
<li>a claim for damages relating to the costs of obtaining to user’s details.</li>
</ul>
<p>The latest claim by DBC LLC said it would only ask for the cost of an individual license fee in addition to its court costs. Each person would also receive a claim for the same amount, rather than the previous approach that the amount would be reflective of the individuals income.</p>
<p>But yesterday Perram made it very clear he was not content with the progress by DBC LLC and <a href="http://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2015/2015fca1437">said</a> “some finality must now be brought to these proceedings”. He added:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What I will do is make a self-executing order which will terminate the proceedings on Thursday 11 February 2016 at noon, unless DBC takes some step before then.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This could result in the entire case ending with no resolution other than an expensive exercise for DBC LLC.</p>
<h2>Final act</h2>
<p>But does this case really matter and has it had any real impact?</p>
<p>Since the proceedings commenced in April, the media landscape, government policy and piracy levels in Australia have changed.</p>
<p>While Australians have been seen as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-convicts-to-pirates-australias-dubious-legacy-of-illegal-downloading-39912">leaders in piracy</a>, a more recent report by the Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation (IPAF) has shown a <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-drop-in-illegal-movie-downloads-in-australia-49042">decline in piracy</a> by Australians. Although the DBC case was noted as a contributor in the decline in piracy.</p>
<p>This year there have also been changes made to copyright policy by the Australian government. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-better-ways-to-combat-piracy-than-blocking-websites-43701">Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2015</a>, while arguably the wrong approach, gives the film studios an alternative to a lengthy drawn out case like that of DBC LLC. The approach is intended to block access to the websites sharing the illegal content, rather than the individuals downloading the content.</p>
<p>But it could be that both the DBC case and the copyright policy have come too late for most Australians. As many have already changed their approach to illegal downloading. </p>
<p>This year the biggest change has come with the introduction of video on demand services (VoD). The uptake of such services, in particular Netflix, has been much greater than had been expected. A recent <a href="http://www.acma.gov.au/%7E/media/Research%20and%20Analysis/Report/pdf/ACMA%20Communications%20report%202014-15%20pdf.pdf">report</a> by Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) revealed that “53 percent of <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/netflix-australia-uptake-rapid-acma/">Australians used online video services</a> in the six months to June 2015”.</p>
<p>The uptake of VoD services has contributed to a <a href="https://theconversation.com/tv-shifts-from-hero-to-zero-but-even-netflix-cant-kill-pirating-45087">decrease in piracy</a> due to Australians now having access to media content at a lower price point, previously not available. Access was one of the major arguments put forward previously by Australians for their pirating habits.</p>
<p>If the DBC case is to conclude with no real outcome, what message does this send to those Australians still illegally downloading? What will the approach of the copyright holders be in the future to tackle the illegal downloading of their content?</p>
<p>We could see another test case by another studio, maybe this time with a higher ranking box office film. It would be interesting to see Disney’s reaction if the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, was the focus of any illegal downloading. What would be their approach and how would it differ to DBC LLC?</p>
<p>The DBC case has clearly shown the complexities of such a case and the difficulties that any studio will face in Australia when making attempts to tackle piracy when chasing individuals.</p>
<p>Piracy in Australia and the DBC case, as the judge rightly says, are not as big as as Ben-Hur, and there are clearly already positive moves toward piracy’s decrease in Australia that have occurred this year. </p>
<p>But what will be the next move by DBC LLC now that they have already started the lengthy legal battle? We’ll have to wait until noon on February 11 to find out.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52442/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc C-Scott is a board member of C31 Melbourne (Community Television Station).</span></em></p>This could be the final act in the legal battle to recoup money from Australians who allegedly illegally downloaded the movie, Dallas Buyers Club.Marc C-Scott, Lecturer in Screen Media, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/461332015-08-14T05:41:47Z2015-08-14T05:41:47ZWhat now after the Dallas Buyers Club pirate claim is rejected as ‘surreal’?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91861/original/image-20150814-11472-1u5v4k9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A pause, not a halt in legal attempts to claim money from people who illegally downloaded the movie Dallas Buyers Club, which starred Jared Leto (left) and Matthew McConaughey (right).</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.voltagepictures.com/details.aspx?ProjectId=131e77c6-d02a-e211-a8d1-d4ae527c3b65">Voltage Pictures</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The makers of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790636/">Dallas Buyers Club</a> have been dealt a blow in their attempt to extract payment from people alleged to have downloaded illegal copies of the movie.</p>
<p>Voltage Pictures, which owns <a href="http://www.voltagepictures.com/details.aspx?ProjectId=131e77c6-d02a-e211-a8d1-d4ae527c3b65">Dallas Buyers Club</a>, has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/copyright-trumps-privacy-in-dallas-buyers-club-ruling-39801">trying to identify</a> over 4,700 iiNet subscribers who it alleges downloaded illicit copies of the movie. Earlier this year, the <a href="http://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2015/2015fca0317">Federal Court agreed</a> that iiNet should hand over subscriber details, but warned that any letter sent to account holders must first be approved by the court to protect consumers from abuse of the legal system.</p>
<p>In a win for consumer protection, the <a href="http://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2015/2015fca0838">Federal Court has now rejected</a> Voltage’s draft letters, criticising Voltage’s attempts to avoid explaining what fee it would demand.</p>
<p>Voltage had told the Court it would ask account holders for a settlement figure that included:</p>
<ul>
<li>the purchase price of a single legitimate copy of the film; plus</li>
<li>another fee for sharing the film to other BitTorrent users (an extremely large amount that would be a multiple of the total number of people to whom the subscriber may have transmitted small parts of the film); plus</li>
<li>a punishment for any other infringement of the copyright in any other, unrelated, content that subscribers <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/dallas-buyers-club-wants-to-know-torrenters-wage-and-download-history/">admit to have illicitly downloaded</a>; plus</li>
<li>an amount that would cover the cost of tracking down users associated with infringing downloads. </li>
</ul>
<p>The Court accepted that Voltage could ask for the costs of a single copy of the film and an appropriately proportioned fee to recover its legal costs so far. </p>
<p>But Justice Nye Perram rejected Voltage’s attempts to multiply these fees, potentially thousands of times, for every other user in the BitTorrent swarm. His Honour also rejected Voltage’s attempt to claim money for other infringements consumers may have admitted to.</p>
<p>Ultimately, Justice Perram refused to allow Voltage to send the letters in their current form. Voltage will still be allowed to send letters in the future, but only if it promises to limit the damages it is seeking to a more reasonable amount. It will have to back this promise up with a $600,000 bond payment to the court. </p>
<p>Consumers who have illicitly downloaded Dallas Buyers Club could still be liable for damages, but the figures requested are more likely to be closer to a hundred dollars than a few thousand. The exact amounts Voltage are prepared to settle for remain confidential for now.</p>
<h2>The court fights back against ‘speculative invoicing’</h2>
<p>The judge was keen to protect consumers from so-called “speculative invoicing”, where copyright owners send offers to settle claims for grossly disproportionate amounts. These demands can be extortionate: the letters typically threaten consumers with an expensive lawsuit if they don’t pay up.</p>
<p>Voltage Pictures has already been <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hurt-locker-makers-return-to-sue-2514-bittorrent-users-120423/">heavily criticised internationally</a> for its speculative invoicing practices. It has filed massive copyright infringement suits in the US – including one naming <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hurt-locker-makers-target-record-breaking-24583-bittorrent-users-110523/">nearly 25,000 defendants</a> for infringing copyright in its previous film, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/">The Hurt Locker</a>. </p>
<p>The goal of these lawsuits is not necessarily to actually prove infringement in court, but to convince defendants to settle out of court, usually for sums of more than US$2,000.</p>
<p>The United States’ system is open to this kind of copyright trolling, because under US law, copyright owners do not have to prove that they have actually suffered any loss from the infringement. They can ask the court to award any amount from US$750 up to US$150,000. </p>
<p>In Australia, unlike in the US, copyright owners are only entitled to an amount that is proportionate to the fee a consumer should have paid. Only in cases of flagrant copyright infringement are courts allowed to award higher damages to either punish consumers or deter others from infringing.</p>
<p>Speculative invoicing pressures consumers to settle for amounts that can be wildly disproportionate to the harm they have caused. It’s an unfair practice that abuses the legal system.</p>
<p>It also causes real problems for consumers who are wrongly accused and face the difficult choice between an expensive legal battle or simply paying up to make the problem go away.</p>
<h2>People, not criminals</h2>
<p>For years now, we have seen some copyright owners demand exorbitant sums of money for downloads of music or movie files that would have cost A$30 or less to legitimately purchase or hire. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCA/2015/838.html">In this case</a>, Justice Perram refused to allow copyright owners to demand substantial sums of money based on completely imaginary scenarios where users would negotiate a licence to share the movie over BitTorrent. His Honour called this “so surreal as to not be taken seriously”, and said any claims for payment must be firmly grounded in reality.</p>
<p>In this decision, we see internet users being treated as actual people instead of assumed criminals. This is important. So long as users are painted as faceless pirates, it is easy to justify the excessive fees demanded by copyright plaintiffs. A more realistic vision of users as ordinary consumers means that copyright payments must be more realistic too.</p>
<h2>Looking ahead to reform</h2>
<p>This case sets an important precedent for the future. Australian ISPs are close to agreeing to a new <a href="http://delimiter.com.au/2015/07/22/internet-piracy-code-stalls-on-costs/">Industry Code</a> that will make it easier for copyright owners to track down alleged copyright infringers. </p>
<p>This decision means Australian courts will be careful to scrutinise future claims made by copyright owners seeking to identify internet users associated with infringing downloads. It means consumers are protected from extortionate demands made by copyright owners.</p>
<p>Hopefully, the decision will help copyright owners focus on finding ways to offer Australians with quick, convenient, and reasonably priced ways to pay for content, rather than seeking to make money through litigation.</p>
<p>Even Voltage admit that copyright infringement is less about consumers and more about outdated distribution models. In <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/stories/s4212674.htm">an interview on Triple J</a> earlier this year, Michael Wickstrom, Vice President of royalties and music administration at Voltage Pictures, said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] the problem starts with the US distributors, because they purchase it for the US and everything else is driven around the US release date. I feel that if all the distributors were granted a day and date release, this would not be happening.</p>
<p>When we can have realistic release dates, I don’t think that the piracy numbers will be as much.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Time and again, Australians have shown they are <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/people-who-pay-for-content-but-also-infringe-copyright-spend-more/">willing to pay</a> for reasonably priced and accessible content. Copyright owners who try to extort money from downloaders are going about this the wrong way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46133/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Federal Court has said no to an attempt to claim potentially thousands of dollars from people who illegally downloaded the movie Dallas Buyers Club. But the downloaders are not in the clear yet.Nicolas Suzor, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of TechnologyKylie Pappalardo, Associate Lecturer in the School of Law, Queensland University of TechnologySuzannah Wood, Research Fellow, Intellectual Property and Innovation Law Research Program, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/334402014-10-30T09:46:31Z2014-10-30T09:46:31Z‘Right to try’ laws are compassionate, but misguided<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63058/original/dnfjxjkq-1414519462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What if an experimental treatment seems to hold a terminal patient's only hope?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-58807303/stock-photo-time-for-a-refill.html?src=csl_recent_image-2">Pill bottle image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On November 4, the state of Arizona will decide whether to join Colorado, Missouri, Louisiana and Michigan in passing so-called right to try laws. If passed, the “Arizona Terminal Patients’ Right To Try” ballot referendum will grant terminally-ill patients access to experimental treatments that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet approved.</p>
<p>If approved, patients could access drugs, biological products or devices that have successfully passed only <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/ctphases.html">Phase I clinical trials</a>, which are conducted in a small group of volunteers to determine things like side effects and toxicity. Normally, drugs must then advance through further, more rigorous testing before securing FDA approval.</p>
<p>This ballot measure has worthy intentions and highlights certain misgivings inherent in the current system for approving drugs in the United States. That said, neglecting the FDA’s role in guaranteeing drugs that are safe and effective is inappropriate. </p>
<h2>What right to try would skip</h2>
<p>The intent of Phase I testing is <strong>not</strong> to directly benefit patients, but to evaluate a drug’s maximum tolerated dose, its safety and its side effects as determined by testing in a small number of volunteers. Subsequent testing to assure that drugs are actually effective – especially in larger numbers of patients – can take years to complete. For patients who are dying this can present a significant and, at times, insurmountable hurdle. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20140927195938/http://www.azsos.gov/election/2014/Info/PubPamphlet/english/prop303.htm">Arizona referendum</a> requires each patient to provide informed consent for the use of the still-under-investigation treatment. It states the probable risk associated with the agent must not exceed the probable risk from the patient’s disease. In the absence of adequate testing, it’s unclear how such a determination can be reached or how patients can provide fully informed consent.</p>
<h2>Experimental drug ≠ miracle drug</h2>
<p>Importantly, experimental drugs may result in harm. For example, in the early 1990s, <a href="http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Therapy/bone-marrow-transplant">autologous bone marrow transplantation</a> was adopted for certain patients with metastatic breast cancer based on yet-to-be substantiated early-phase clinical trial <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7595697">evidence</a>. Ultimately, this treatment proved unsuccessful. Subsequent trials <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10768448">showed</a> it to have no benefit and were unable to recreate the findings suggested by the original trial that was found to have been poorly designed. Some patients actually did much worse, including some who died.</p>
<p>What was meant as a compassionate step aimed to help those who were in the greatest need – vulnerable patients who understandably may be willing to try anything – backfired and had serious repercussions.</p>
<h2>Current access to experimental drugs</h2>
<p>Presently, terminal patients interested in using a non-clinically proven agent must petition the FDA through a program called <a href="http://www.fda.gov/ForPatients/Other/ExpandedAccess/ucm20041768.htm">compassionate use</a>. The FDA decides each petition on a case-by-case basis; even when it finds in favor of patients, the process can take time, time that some patients may not have.</p>
<p>At heart, like the right to try bills that preceded it, the Arizona referendum remains a compassionate use program. The difference is that it removes the FDA from the calculus.</p>
<h2>Complications</h2>
<p>Even with a right to try law, patients and doctors would still need to petition the drug company, which is under no obligation to release the experimental drug. In fact, companies may balk at doing so. Releasing treatments early could compromise ongoing trials of the agent and prove quite costly. Often companies only produce a very limited supply of drugs under development and may have little if any additional supply to offer for compassionate use.</p>
<p>Another concern is that by bypassing the existing approval process, some drugs that may not be safe and ready for widespread use will suddenly have an avenue to be tried without fear of consequences. Some manufacturers might see this as a way to test their drugs in a way that they otherwise would not be able to. Companies might petition doctors to refer terminal and potentially desperate patients who may not be ideal candidates for a particular drug. One might also imagine doctors being offered certain incentives to do so.</p>
<h2>Redesigning the approval process</h2>
<p>The plight of terminal patients is a tragic one – especially when a treatment in development that holds the promise for potential benefit is beyond their reach. In such cases, one might imagine revamping certain aspects of clinical trials for terminally ill patients who have few, if any, meaningful options to extend their lives.</p>
<p>When a particular experimental treatment has relatively few side effects and/or a significantly positive response, perhaps it makes sense to relax access. Here’s what I propose:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Instead of randomizing patients as is typically practiced whereby one patient receives the experimental drug and one patient the control, we should consider allowing more patients to receive the experimental drug, say in a 2:1 or a 3:1 randomization.</p></li>
<li><p>Once a drug begins to show promise, trials could be designed to look for more modest outcomes. It should also be easier for patients randomized either to a placebo or to standard treatment to receive the experimental agent. This can be accomplished when a clinical trial is designed as a crossover trial, in which all patients eventually receive both treatment options. </p></li>
<li><p>These types of decisions should involve affected stakeholders as well as public discussion and comment. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Especially when considering yet-to-be proven experimental interventions, although understandable, right to try laws miss the target. Greater emphasis should focus on the duty of physician-researchers to help patients and their surrogates distinguish realistic from unrealistic hope while maintaining reasonable expectations.</p>
<p><strong><em>For another view of the ethics of right to try laws see: <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-dying-patients-have-the-right-to-access-experimental-treatments-33884">Should dying patients have the right to access experimental treatments?</a></em></strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33440/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yoram Unguru does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On November 4, the state of Arizona will decide whether to join Colorado, Missouri, Louisiana and Michigan in passing so-called right to try laws. If passed, the “Arizona Terminal Patients’ Right To Try…Yoram Unguru, Assistant Professor of Oncology at the School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/226642014-02-06T06:40:30Z2014-02-06T06:40:30ZHow the Dallas Buyers Club changed HIV treatment in the US<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40668/original/gtvp9m49-1391533353.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ron Woodroof (played by Matthew McConaughey, right) changed HIV treatment in the US.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EntertainmentOne</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article contains spoilers.</em></p>
<p>In the award-winning movie The Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew McConaughey plays the role of Ron Woodroof, a real-life Texas cowboy who was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1985.</p>
<p>HIV/AIDS is now a chronic but manageable illness, at least for people in high-income countries who have access to highly effective antiretroviral drugs, but at the time of Ron’s diagnosis, a positive HIV test was largely a death sentence. </p>
<p>The first effective treatment for AIDS, zidovudine (AZT), was still in development in 1985. AZT wouldn’t be approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) until 1987, so access was largely restricted to patients enrolled in clinical trials.</p>
<p>During the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the disease was largely seen as primarily affecting gay men, prostitutes and drug users. Discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS was common: they were routinely and legally kicked out of their homes, expelled from their classrooms, and fired from their jobs. </p>
<p>Patients even faced discrimination at the hands of healthcare professionals. Even as this public health crisis unfolded, many doctors and nurses openly proclaimed they would not be going anywhere near a patient with AIDS because of the personal risk and because of their obligations to protect their own family. Small wonder, then, that most people living with HIV/AIDS in the mid-1980s died within a few months of receiving a diagnosis.</p>
<h2>Ron’s story</h2>
<p>Ron Woodroof would have been just another statistic: his disease was relatively advanced at the time diagnosis, he was precluded from enrolling in a clinical trial of AZT for safety reasons, and he was largely abandoned by his friend and family because of the shame of having a “gay disease”. But he chose to fight rather than succumb to a then untreatable illness. </p>
<p>Thus began Ron’s prolonged struggle, which ended in 1992 when he died from an AIDS-related illness (nearly seven years after doctors gave him but a few weeks to live).</p>
<p>Ron began to self-treat using unapproved and illicitly obtained antiviral medications. Soon, he and his colleagues are routinely travelling to Mexico, Japan, Israel and the Netherlands to purchase antiviral drugs and treatments that were not approved or available for use in the United States. They begin providing these drugs to those living with HIV/AIDS – primarily members of stigmatised communities like gay men and drug users – via the commercial operation that gives the movie its name, the Dallas Buyers Club.</p>
<h2>The activists who changed history</h2>
<p>Ron Woodroof also (albeit unsuccessfully) took the FDA to court to force them to allow the importation of the experimental HIV inhibitor Peptide T from Denmark. In doing so, he became part of a larger movement in which community-based organisations and activists began to set their own agenda for biomedical research and treatment. </p>
<p>Outraged by federal regulations and policies that slow the development, testing and distribution of new drugs to treat HIV/AIDS, for instance, activists in New York City, San Francisco and elsewhere established groups such as the <a href="http://www.gmhc.org/">Gay Men’s Health Crisis</a>, <a href="http://www.projectinform.org/">Project Inform</a>, <a href="http://actupny.com/actions/">AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power</a> (ACT UP) and the <a href="http://www.treatmentactiongroup.org/">Treatment Action Group</a>. Like Ron, these organisations helped change the way clinicians, researchers, drug companies, and local, state and national governments addressed the HIV/AIDS epidemic.</p>
<p>In the documentary <a href="https://theconversation.com/aids-activism-commuted-death-sentences-but-its-spirit-is-lost-20042">How to Survive a Plague</a>, nominated for best documentary at last year’s Oscars, we see how ACT-UP mobilised a national demonstration at the FDA in 11 October, 1988. On that day, more than 1,500 activists from around the world surrounded and effectively shut down FDA headquarters. Shortly thereafter, in consultation with ACT UP and like-minded organisations, the FDA instituted new policies to speed up the testing, approval and distribution of HIV/AIDS drugs, including the first program to provide pre-approval access to new drugs for people failing AZT treatment. </p>
<p>Similar demonstrations at the US National Institutes of Health lead to other significant changes in how clinical trials are designed and conducted. This included the formation of groups in which members from afflicted communities participated as full members of trial committees and protocol teams.</p>
<h2>Woodroof’s legacy</h2>
<p>What these two films, the semi-fictional Dallas Buyers Club and the documentary How to Survive a Plague, expertly show is how a single individual or a small group of dedicated activists can have a significant and long-lasting impact on public policy even in the face of private apathy or open hostility. </p>
<p>At the start of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, public response to the disease was tepid at best. Federal funding for public health had been repeatedly cut, effectively preventing agencies such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from responding to the emerging threat. Public health officials and politicians also seemed largely unconcerned about the disease, so long as it largely affected marginalised members of society.</p>
<p>All that changed thanks to the efforts of Ron Woodroof and those like him. These people both highlighted injustice and prejudice against people with HIV/AIDS, and demanded increased government resources for fighting the disease. Since then activists and advocacy groups have become an increasingly important part of biomedical research and clinical practice, not just for HIV/AIDS but also for diseases such as breast cancer, Alzheimer’s and autism. </p>
<p>There is still a long way to go. Community advocates and activists are not always fully empowered, equal members of research and treatment teams, and more wealthy and connected organisations can often dictate the topic of conversation. But public health research and practice is vastly improved from the highly politicised approaches of the past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22664/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Has no potential conflicts to disclose.</span></em></p>This article contains spoilers. In the award-winning movie The Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew McConaughey plays the role of Ron Woodroof, a real-life Texas cowboy who was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1985…Sean Philpott, Director, Center for Bioethics and Clinical Leadership, Union Graduate CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.