Big content opens the champers
An Irish ISP has decided that it will introduce the
'three strikes' rule and cut off customers who the music and film industry
claim are P2P pirates. Eircom which his one of the biggest broadband providers
in Ireland will begin a process that will lead to cutting off the broadband
service of customers found to be repeatedly sharing music online illegally.
Ireland is the first country in the world where a system
of graduated response is being put in place. The plan is that Eircom customers who illegally share
copyrighted music will get three warnings before having their broadband service
cut off for a year. As yet the method that it will use to identify file
shares is unclear.
The Data Protection Commissioner recently appealed to the
courts not to accept IP addresses as 'personal information'. If that comment is
recognised by the Irish courts then it will have problems identifying who is
filesharing.
The Irish Recorded Music Association (Irma), whose
members include EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner, recently reached an
out-of-court settlement with Eircom in February 2009 under which the telecoms
company agreed to introduce such a system for its 750,000 broadband users. This
meant that it would not be sued into a coma by big content.
