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Irish Supreme Court Upholds 3-Strikes Rule For Copyright Violation

Posted by timothy on from the power-of-green dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this news from The Irish Times: "'The Supreme Court [Wednesday] upheld a challenge by four music companies to a notice of the Data Protection Commissioner which they feared would effectively unwind their 'three strikes and you're out' agreement with Eircom aimed at combating the widespread illegal downloading of music.' In the ruling it was found the original High Court trial judge correctly concluded there was 'a complete absence of reasons' and therefore, the notice was unlawful and made in breach of Section 10.4 of the Data Protection Acts. Makes you wonder whether the High Court would have upheld it, had the Data Commissioner given reasons ... which seemed quite justified: 'In September 2011, the Commissioner told Eircom the complainant subscriber had restated his original complaint and alleged Eircom's monitoring of his internet use breached his data protection rights.'"

4 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. tl;dr It's Guinness Time by Freshly+Exhumed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The big Irish ISP Eircom monitored subscribers at the behest of Big Media. After a complaint, a Commissioner determined that ISP customers had to consent to such monitoring, so it was halted. Big Media went crazy, took it to court, won a victory, faced an appeal, then the High Court found (on very narrow, legalistic terms) that the Commissioner had not given proper reasoning for WANTING TO PROTECT THE FREEDOM, LIBERTY, AND PRIVACY OF EIRCOM CUSTOMERS, and so was therefore wrong. Big Media wins again.

    This is going to take quite a few Giuinesses (and maybe quite a few Old Bushmills too) to rid Eircom customers of the bad taste.

    --
    I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
  2. I'm beginning to wonder... by mitcheli · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Which is more serious, the traditional high crimes like murder and rape, or illegally copying a DVD.

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    Select from tblFriends where interesting >= 4;
    1. Re:I'm beginning to wonder... by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The answer is easy and based on a simple question: What causes more economic loss to a corporation? Rape? Or illegally copying a DVD.

      You expect crimes to be judged by humane reasons while they are judged by economic reasons. You're just applying a different "morale" than the people who actually have the power to take decision in the present world.

      You probably also believe that all people should be equal, but you live in a world that clearly disagrees and believes people are valued by their economic value (both possessions and influence in the economy).

      In some centuries, humans will have stories about the dark ages where the humans were judged by their economic value, just as we do about the times where they were judged by birthright or, even before, by brute force.

      And these humans will probably live in a society with it's set of flaws, to be corrected in the further future.

      The only important objectives, as a society, are to survive and to improve. As long as we're doing both, everything's fine.

  3. Not So Free Market by GeekWithAKnife · · Score: 5, Insightful


    Assuming several ISPs are being roped into these agreements one way or another it's still up to the consumer to vote with their feet.

    I for one am quite interested in how many subscribers will simply leave or terminate immediately when threats to cut off their internet are made (1st strike 2nd etc)
    Imagine your child downloads some stuff and all of a sudden there's a risk that your favorite internet movie streaming service is cut off. Will you put up with ISPs that do this?
    Somewhere out there is an ISP small enough or honorable enough to protect its' customers.

    --
    A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.