Slashdot Mirror
Irish Supreme Court Upholds 3-Strikes Rule For Copyright Violation
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.'"
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.
Which is more serious, the traditional high crimes like murder and rape, or illegally copying a DVD.
Select from tblFriends where interesting >= 4;
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.
Simply just wait until you have to file taxes through the internet. Here in the Netherlands taxes can only be filed through the internet, you can no longer fill in forms. Therefor here in the Netherlands Internet is a requirement for citizenship. If three strikes rule would be allowed here, then people who are cut off can no longer file taxes.
I am pretty sure you can sue the country, saying that you would like to file your taxes.
They're magically judicious!
All generalizations are either false or useless, except this one.
Why can't people found guiltyliable of copyright crimetorts go to a public library to file their taxes instead of using home Internet access?
Two and a half years ago, when eircom agreed to implement this 3 strikes rule, Big Media offered eircom a sweetener, which was a free music streaming site for their customers. This was just announced to be closing, so much for the 'carrot' part.
The 3-strikes 'stick' part of their approach is effective, people that have gotten a warning letter have changed their behaviour.... to the point of using less detectable technology such as VPNs or f2f Retroshare
Ireland has a vibrant community of artists and musicians, many of whom are crowdfunding their first releases giving them a direct connection to their fans. People here show a willingness to pay for legal content, itunes (easy to use) and netflix (good value) have both had a big impact here, and globally of course.
These court battles are becoming less and less relevant. We know now that sharing communities and technology will always outpace the enforcers, and also that people will pay for content when it's judged to be affordable and easy to use. Big Media will simply have to learn that lesson and evolve. Those that won't will fade.
If the ISP is actively monitoring the information carried and acting upon it, then surely they should lose their common carrier status and be liable for damages.
eg. Why only monitor & block copyright sites and not trojan/malware sites?
Just VPN to another juristiction.
It is a privacy tax, of sorts, but there are all sorts of affordable options. It's not going to give you complete anonymity, of course, but what it does most certainly give you is a very effective adminstrative and legal barrier for anyone attempting to sue you to deal with.
Sooner or later someone will launch a satellite for this purpose..
..don't panic
You can DL song by song by song, month after month, or, go to a friend's house and copy his hard drive in a few hours. I have 45,670 songs. Come by with a bottle of wine. We'll hang. We'll laugh, we'll get boozed up. By the time we're done - the songs are copied and you get to go home with a lifetime of music...
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Is it 3 convictions or 3 accusations.
accusations.
of course. I mean, huh. you think they would get the police involved? that would put an end to the little racket if they did it that way in the same scale..
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.