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Russia is making their own chip. And I don't blame them! Chips made by US companies cannot be trusted.

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/russian-cpu-debut-us-tech-breakaway

http://hexus.net/tech/news/cpu/71357-russia-building-baikal-processor-replace-amd-intel-chips/

I've been reading-up a bit more on Sherlock's justifications for what's happened. Sherlock appears to be issuing the typical governmental/trade association doublespeak to justify this bullshit.

Sherlock has the balls to claim that public involvement is key in revising Irish copyright law. Why then was this change simply forced through as a statutory instrument, in the face of significant public opposition, a very obvious detrimental effects to the electorate and businesses, and without debate? He has the fucking cheek to complain about having he dogs set on him. No shit Sherlock! You bypass the democratic process to do serious harm to our rights, and then wonder why people badger you? Oh boo hoo! He claims as well that it's unfair to equate this change with SOPA. How? Really, Sherlock, is this your stupidity or do you think that we're dumb enough to not see the obvious parallels?

He's claiming that changes in copyright law are about removing barriers to innovation? Sherlock, you lying bastard. How exactly does allowing judges to pretty arbitrarily shut down websites encourage innovation? Would something like YouTube ever have existed if a law of this kind existed earlier? How about Facebook and Google? No, they'd be far too fucking risky because all it would take is an unpredictably bad day in court to shutter their business. Sherlock is either a liar or completely fucking incompetent. This shit risks causing severe harm to Ireland's ability to foster hi-tech companies, and doesn't even do much to prevent piracy. He's handed the content owners a very blunt weapon that is neither effective nor safe to use.

I'm going to participate in this "open forum" he's pushing. The Irish Internet Association itself has said that feedback from the public will be a lower priority than that coming from its members. It's too early to draw conclusions on how the IIA will handle this, yet for now Sherlock is deflecting questions about his dishonesty to this forum that shall at some point appear.

Sherlock repeatedly stresses the need for compromise between both sides. Based on his fucknuttery to date, I can make a few predictions:

1) The bulk of the compromise will not be coming from the content owners.

2) The ability to shut-down sites, SOPA style, will remain.

3) Copyright durations will remain unchanged, or will be increased

4) Penalties for copyright infringement will become harsher

5) The weaselly bastards will sell the loss of our rights as being a good thing. Hey, think of how the increase in movie production when copyright terms are extended to 1000 years, and when the Internet gets throttled during the day and switched off at night to reduce piracy.

6) In general, the entire thing will continue to be sold as essential to innovation and securing Ireland's future in the "digital economy". In reality, it will further entrench old media and criminalise a large chunk of the population.

In case I didn't make this clear, Sean Sherlock is a lying/incompetent and asinine whining cunt of a man. I wish nothing but misery upon this man and all that he holds dear.

Indirectly, but it's apparent what the killswitch could mean:

The internet, through born out of the Cold War, should represent the opportunity for a bright, transparent, safe and exciting future for many. However, its use as a tool of oppression and the ever-flaring battles over privacy suggest a long, rocky road ahead.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/strategy/item/20156-us-plans-internet-kill/

It looks like Eircom are not actually providing the record companies with any more information than they already have. They are simply providing a service to the record companies to punish copyright violators without having to use the courts.

The record companies will be continue to gather IP addresses and timestamps of copyright violators (using danish company DetecNet - the new MediaSentry), and will simply pass them on to Eircom in the hope that Eircom will act on it.

The potential problem here is what recourse do Eircom customers have if they are falsely accused due to incorrect timestamps or the fact that their Eircom wireless router is still so easy to hack? At the moment, the transparency of the whole process is minimal.

Reading material...

A spokesman for Eircom explained to siliconrepublic.com that the collaboration with the labels will not involve any network intervention. âoeEffectively, a third party will be hired by the labels to find out who are the largest illegal P2P downloaders. They will then come to us with the IP addresses of the suspected parties.

âoeWe wonâ(TM)t reveal the identities of the users, but we will contact them and if they fail to comply we will follow the process agreed with the music industry. Currently the industry pursues these individuals in the court. We will now begin a three-step process that will begin with the issuing of a warning.

âoeThe labels have agreed to pursue similar deals with other ISPs in the marketplace,â the Eircom spokesman said.

OP here. I did some more digging around after posting this. It seems that Eircom will not be providing any additional information to the record companies as a result of this settlement. They will simply be acting as an intermediary between the companies and their own customers - issuing warnings after being provided with offending IP addresses and timestamps.

Where the record companies get these IP addresses is up to them (apparently they will be using Danish company DetecNet - the new MediaSentry). Of course the potential problem here is: what is the accused and disconnected customer's recourse if the timestamps are incorrect, or they happen to share their Internet connection with others?

This settlement seems to give the record companies a new vehicle to punish P2P users whom they catch, without having to pay lawyers. Eircom also gain because the have an excuse to disconnect heavy P2P users.

Reading Material

"Effectively, a third party will be hired by the labels to find out who are the largest illegal P2P downloaders. They will then come to us with the IP addresses of the suspected parties.

"We wonâ(TM)t reveal the identities of the users, but we will contact them and if they fail to comply we will follow the process agreed with the music industry. Currently the industry pursues these individuals in the court. We will now begin a three-step process that will begin with the issuing of a warning.

"The labels have agreed to pursue similar deals with other ISPs in the marketplace," the Eircom spokesman said.

The ISP has no obligation and the *AA can't seem to "educate" themselves out of their problem.