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Irish three-strikes halted, but web-blocking now on the agenda
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 20 December 2011
Mixed fortunes for the Irish record industry today. The three-strike style anti-file-sharing system being operated by Eircom has been halted on privacy grounds, but word has it the Irish government will introduce some new anti-piracy measures in the new year, including good old fashioned web-blocking.
As much previously reported, Eircom, Ireland’s biggest internet service provider, voluntarily agreed to instigate a so called ‘graduated response’ system for combating file-sharing as part of an out of court agreement between the net provider and the big record companies in Ireland. It means the ISP will send out warning letters to suspected file-sharers, with the threat of disabling their net connections if they continue to access unlicensed sources of content. The Irish labels pledged to try and persuade or pressure Eircom’s competitors into introducing a similar system, but so far without success.
And now the Eircom scheme might close too after Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner ordered the whole thing be halted on the grounds it breaches people’s online privacy rights. The DPC raised privacy concerns about three-strikes once before, though those were rejected in a court case between the record industry and another ISP called UPC.
However, the DPC then launched a full investigation into Eircom’s three-strikes earlier this year after it was revealed that 300 warning letters had been sent by mistake to innocent web users. And it seems that as a result of that investigation the DPC has now called for a halt to three-strikes in Ireland.
But that news comes at the same time as reports that the Irish government will launch new legislative proposals in the new year to help rights owners combat online piracy, in particular introducing a system to enable content companies to force ISPs to block websites that exist primarily to infringe – yes, that old thing.
There have been various rumours during 2011 that the Irish government was about to publish proposals for anti-piracy measures, none of which came to much, though these latest reports seem more credible.
So, I suppose, you win some you lose some.
