Ireland's Largest ISP Settles With Record Industry

An anonymous reader writes "In what has been billed as a world first, four music companies and Irish ISP Eircom have agreed to work together to end illegal music downloading. The Irish branches of the record companies (EMI Records Ltd, Sony BMG Music Entertainment Ltd, Universal Music Ltd and Warner Music Ltd.) brought a High Court action against Eircom last March which has resulted in this settlement after eight days of trial. Eircom will be implementing a three-step process — informing a subscriber that their IP address has been detected infringing copyright; warning the subscriber that if they do not stop they will be disconnected; and finally disconnecting the user if they fail to heed the warning. Which technology they will be using to spy on their customers is currently unknown. EMI and the other record companies have recommended US-based Audible Magic, which (among other things) claims to block copyright violating web content from sites like Youtube and MySpace. However, digital surveillance is nothing new in Ireland and Eircom may have already tested and implemented the necessary technologies."

Comments

Let' see how fast they will run out of customers

[egnop]

Since they probably will go disconnecting people very soon. And that will end up getting another ISP to get connected again.

A comparison

[peterprior]

I wonder how people would react if the postal service were allowed to hold envelopes up to a light, say "theres a CD in there which could have illegally copied copyrighted data on it!" and then after doing that 3 times, stop all mail to your house without having to provide any actual evidence or give you a chance to prove your innocence.

Re:A comparison

[elrous0]

I'm sure a lot of people are going to respond to this comment with "But ISP's are private entities, not the government postal service." But the harsh fact is that most people have little more choice in their ISP's than they do in their postal service. Most people are like me. I have a grand total of two options if I want a broadband internet connection: AT&T's DSL service and Comcast's cable service. So basically, I can't anymore just "take my business elsewhere" (if I got banned for alleged piracy) than I could with the postal service. Getting banned from these two private entities would effectively cut me off from the internet permanently, with no recourse. That's pretty serious business in an age where your very livelihood can depend on the internet (particularly if you're a techie like me).

Re:A comparison

[furby076]

Well - this isn't a court of law it is a business. If they want to stop servicing you they have a right to do so. They do have evidence, they have trace logs. Yes someone may spoof you, hack you, etc - but I am sure that is a fairly small percentage. I would think that pirates, on average, are a bit more computer savvy about virus programs, firewalls, etc. While there are many idiots out there when it comes to this (my brother) it is a small percentage.

A letter in your mailbox saying "we know that you d/l'ed XYZ file at 123 time using IP ##, cease and desist" is pretty compeling. I have gotten these from Comcast and they were always spot on. I never received a letter I did not deserve. Then again, I didn't care. It was TV shows that comcasts DVR box failed to record even though it recorded the previous show in that tv series.

If you think there will be an exodus from this company you are mistaken. First this company may have a local monopoly, or be heads and shoulders better then there competition (for example I hate comcast, but my options or cable highspeed or DSL....I need the speed so I stick with cable). Second most people don't pirate - most go online check their e-mail, surf sites, and maybe play soduku online.

So this company is doing what they feel is correct for their business model.

Personally I think it is crappy, and I am willing to bet this "spying" will cause some network lag - but if you want the RIAA to get off our lawn then we need to stop downloading their content and stop buying their content.

Re:A comparison

[Anonymous Coward]

did you miss the part where they don't have to prove you were actually doing any pirating, and you had no way to appeal the decision?

It's all a red herring

[yttrstein]

Watch how fast https becomes ubiquitous. When everyone is encrypting everything, the RIAA will be utterly powerless.

As they already are when it comes to any encrypted connection to any number of swarms or usenet servers.

Re:It's all a red herring

[Anonymous Coward]

They will probably make encryption illegal. If you've got nothing to hide, there's no reason for you to use encryption, is there? If you use bit torrent over SSL, you're screwed, they'll come into your house and confiscate everything you own until they find something to charge you with or they sanctify you for finding that you were 100% legal, after you starve to death because you have lost everything you've earned in a life time (whether you worked for 5 or 50 years, it would still be everything you've ever worked for and it would be even worse because you might not have anyone to help you and you don't have much experience).

Re:It's all a red herring

[gad_zuki!]

Not really. They join existing torrents and simply log all the IPs attempting to download from their seeders. The transport may be encrypted but youre talking to them asking them "Hello there sir, can I have piece 5949 of 'Metallica-Discography.rar.'" Blammo your ISP sends you a letter.

I doubt everyone will move to private trackers. In fact, I doubt they mind private trackers very much. Its impossible to stop the motivated and technically informed, but the harder it is for Joe Average to get music the better.

Now, if ISPs could use this technology to detect and take botnet members offline, we might have something good going on here.

Re:Let' see how fast they will run out of customer

[commodore64_love]

I hope you're right. The fact the Eircom rolled-over in just 8 days demonstrates that these companies have no interest in protecting our rights. For them it's all about the money, and they obviously took the cheapest route of not fighting.

Re:Let' see how fast they will run out of customer

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

The fact the Eircom rolled-over in just 8 days demonstrates that these companies have no interest in protecting our rights. For them it's all about the money

Of course it is. It is not a company's job to protect your rights. A company's main purpose is to make money for its shareholders.

Laws are what are supposed to protect your rights, because that company has to operate within the law. If the company's actions are an abuse, then the law should be changed (or enforced) so that this does not happen.

Of course, I'm assuming you were referring to legitimate privacy rights here, not to a non-existent right to download material in breach of copyright.

This is awesome!

[Anonymous Coward]

Think about it. The ISP is saying they are responsible for the content on their network. Now you can sue your ISP for wasting your resources on SPAM (especially all the illegal stuff).

Or anything else like if your underage kid views porn. Oops, ISP you should have blocked that!

Or somebody posts untrue comments about you in a forum from one of these ISP's. Forget about trying to find the person doing it, that's expensive and hard. Just sue the ISP into the ground!

(same goes for Comcast and all those other companies that signed up to monitor their network; they can kiss their neutrality goodbye because now they are liable!)

Good luck Ireland, time to call the ACLU in U.S.

[mlwmohawk]

If this mode of operation were to come to the U.S.A. we should hope the ACLU and EFF challenge it. Here is why:

More and more, the internet is being used as an access gateway to the government in order to participate as citizens. Removing this access without due process would certainly be actionable.

Corporations MUST NOT be allowed to be judge/jury/executioner for citizens. There must be due process and a jury of peers for any such action.

Re:Let' see how fast they will run out of customer

[cliffski]

Ah I see. so if you pirate all your digital entertainment from now until the end of time, and everyone acts like you, there will be fuck-all impact on the jobs of people working that industry and thus it doesn't affect anyone?

Or do you only care if your actions affect people you know personally?
Nice attitude.

Re:Let' see how fast they will run out of customer

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Really? Keep your word. Swap a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. Look after those you love. Never stop learning. Do unto others as you would have done unto you. Be polite. Is it so hard to think of honest, decent behaviour these days? That's very sad.

Re:Let' see how fast they will run out of customer

[Karem Lore]

Which is why the "people" should hit them where it hurts...stop buying music...Stop it...completely...no music purchase means no budget for combatting piracy...no music companies...no problem. I say that we need to organise, online, a mass protest...For 2 months (or more), agree to not purchase music...make it a cult...hit it where it hurts...their bottom line...Start buying music from the artist rather than the industry...