High Court ruling lets eircom off the hook with file sharers

RangeR

Linky

The High Court has ruled that copyright infringers are to have their access to the Internet cut off. Today's judgment was made in relation to an action taken by record labels EMI Records (Ireland); Sony B.G. Music Entertainment (Ireland); Universal Music (Ireland) and Warner Music (Ireland) against Eircom for facilitating the transfer of copyrighted material over peer-to-peer networks. All parties came to an agreement after eight days of evidence.

Eircom has agreed to abide by a 'three strikes' cases where illegal file sharing is detected by a third party who passes the the details of the specific computer involved (specifically the IP address) to the affected record company who, in turn, registers a complain with eircom. For a first offence a user will be notified by eircom, for a second offense a written warning will be issued and a third offence will be met by disconnection of Internet service (but not phone or television services if held with the same provider).

Mr. Justice Charleton noted that as eircom represented a 40% market share in a competitive space the record labels have agreed to take legal action against other ISPs operating in the State.

watty

Better explained here.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/19/charleton_eircom_emi/

I don't think people's Internet should be cut off. But I have no sympathy for "freetards".

"Copyright is a universal entitlement to be identified with and to sell, and therefore to enjoy, the fruits of creative work... Were copyright not to exist, then the efforts of an artist could be both stolen and passed off as the talent of another."

After singing the praises of the internet Charleton notes that it is,

"thickly populated by fraudsters, pornographers of the worst kind and cranks.

Among younger people, so much has the habit grown up of downloading copyright material from the internet that a claim of entitlement seems to have arisen to have what is not theirs for free."

Everyone won from this, he noted, "except for the creators of original copyright material who are utterly disregarded."

Interestingly, Charleton rejects the idea of copyright infringement as a 'crime' - it's a mere civil offence, in this case a breach of contract. Copyright infringement doesn't include a "mental element" involved in arson or murder, he notes.

So the ruling rejects two key arguments made by critics of the UK's Digital Economy Act - that internet access is a 'fundamental human right', and that copyright enforcement infringes privacy. The ruling gives the go ahead light for a 'three strikes' policy in Ireland - one rather speedier than anything discussed here, and which will be thrashed out in the months ahead (see A user's timetable to the Digital Economy Act).

After 28 days and two letters, the ISP may serve a 14-day disconnection notice during which time the user may appeal or promise to stop for good.

The actual ruling, rather than opinionated blogging
http://courts.ie/Judgments.nsf/09859e7a3f34669680256ef3004a27de/7e52f4a2660d8840802577070035082f?OpenDocument

This is a more appropriate thread, probabily. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055885700