Slashdot Mirror
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."
...go buy the CD.
Sorry, people, but the facts are these:
1. If you're downloading music for free because it's not worth the money being asked for it, then you're either listening to the crappy music and/or not hunting down the best prices for your CDs.
2. Paying £10 for a classic album that might well stay with you for 50+ years of your life seems pretty good value for me. (Hell, I bought Led Zeppelin 4 on vinyl, tape & CD over the past 30-odd years & it's still worth every penny for the amount of times I get enjoyment from it).
3. Don't equate hoarding music to loving music - there's a big difference & the former is usually done by young males with small penises out to impress girls with 20,000 tracks on their iWanks^H^H^H^H^HPods.
4. So a particular CD only has 2 good tracks on it? Soution: buy it second hand or wait till it's in a bargain bin. If a good CD is worth £10 then a half-good CD is worth £5 - do the maths.
5. Read reviews, listen to samples & spend time researching your music - take-away food is quick, cheap & not very good for you, neither is take-away music.
6. No I don't work for the music industry & never have done - neither to I play an instrument, sing or have ever been part of a band. But I don't mind paying money for something that's good value.
7. As a regular CD buyer, how the *HELL* do you think I feel subsidising you people with your *FREE* music collections?
Rant over.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
The failure of Government, is that it inevitably serves big businesses. There should be more competition in your area, and there would be more competition, if they'd deregulate the entire industry.
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