Download Dallas Buyers Club illegally? Filmmaker launches unprecedented crackdown on pirates

Academy Award-winning movie Dallas Buyers Club is earning fame in Asia, not for its cinematic merits, but as a cautionary tale for thousands of people who could face legal action for illegally sharing the 2013 film.

The film’s co-producer Voltage Pictures has obtained court orders in Singapore and Australia, forcing Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to reveal the names of hundreds of suspected offenders who downloaded and shared the film illegally.

The scale of the crackdown has been unprecedented, identifying more than 500,000 unlawful distributors worldwide, according to Voltage Pictures.

“We can only pursue a small proportion, but the hope is that that will be sufficient to raise awareness of this massive problem,” said Michael Wickstrom, vice-president of Royalties and Music Administration at Voltage Pictures, said. in an email.

The film, for which Matthew McConaughey won an Oscar for best actor, is about a homophobic, rodeo-loving Texan who contracts AIDS and becomes an unlikely saviour for gay patients and drug addicts desperate for treatment.