Has anyone in Ireland been prosecuted for File Sharing?

Mr Rivers

Have they caught any and brought them to court?

What was the outcome if any?

cornbb

Yup, IRMA have been prosecuting people. Details here:

http://www.rte.ie/arts/2005/0412/irma.html

Mr Rivers

Does IRMA only look out for the interests of Irish acts? Did the 17 people get caught for sharing The Frames and Damien Rice?

0utshined

I predict that those cases, if they get off the ground, will all be settled out of court.

Mr. Rivers, AFAIK they represent SONY, BMG et al so no, it's not just (or even) Irish artists they're looking out for.

DerekD Goldfish

I doubt anyone will get done if they do though i may be in trouble as I share more than 4 times the amount they call excessive sharing

skregs

i heard that they're going after people that upload songs to personal websites as opposed to people using file-sharers.
anyone know anything about how they're going after people?

Makaveli

Look at the date on that article, 12th of April.
They haven't been able to get anywhere because the ISPs wont disclose the personal information.

Kare Bear

What file sharing networks are the ***** after.I hope the limewire one is'nt a target.;)

Robbo

Makaveli wrote:

Look at the date on that article, 12th of April.
They haven't been able to get anywhere because the ISPs wont disclose the personal information.

The ISPs fear the Data Protection act far more than IRMA at the moment so there's little chance of them capitulating.

Serbian

Kare Bear wrote:

What file sharing networks are the ***** after.I hope the limewire one is'nt a target.;)

I think BitTorrent is the easiest to target at the moment. I was under the impression that they hired an American Traffic Analysis specialist to monitor certain torrents and record the IPs of any Irish ISPs. People on UTV and NTL are probably safe from IRMA as the IP shows up as the UK.

magpie

ISPs won't hand over the details, so no court case.

Its just IRMA trying to blow smoke up everyone's ass with vaguely worded press releases intended to imply culpability on the behalf of anyone using filesharers.

Incidentally, its only illegal to upload files, it's 100% legal to download them, so if you're worried just turn off sharing on your fileshare software.

Happy downloading.

besty

lets just hope there are no court injunctions put on the ISP's to provide the details of the customers...

DjDangerousDave

See attached clipping from Irish Times - Tuesday 5th July 2005 (Page 14)

besty

well they wont have a choice if the data commissioner deems it a breach of the right to protection of our details...

we should all just threaten BT/Eircom that we will go to an ISP who wont bandy about our data.

nellieswellies

Presumably there will be a court order, you're right they can't just hand over details on request but if there are reasonable grounds a court order could be granted.

DjDangerousDave

magpie wrote:

ISPs won't hand over the details, so no court case.

Its just IRMA trying to blow smoke up everyone's ass with vaguely worded press releases intended to imply culpability on the behalf of anyone using filesharers.

Incidentally, its only illegal to upload files, it's 100% legal to download them, so if you're worried just turn off sharing on your fileshare software.

Happy downloading.

100% Legal? What peice of Irish / International law would you say backs that up?

magpie

100% Legal?

Well, that's what it used to say on the IRMA website before they got rid of that link. Allow me to paraphrase it "You won't get taken to court if you have sharing turned off"

DjDangerousDave

magpie wrote:

Well, that's what it used to say on the IRMA website before they got rid of that link. Allow me to paraphrase it "You won't get taken to court if you have sharing turned off"

Where and when?
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.irma.ie

magpie

The week that the cases were announced there was a little side panel saying "to avoid proescution turn off sharing on your p2p software"

DjDangerousDave

And what about NTL?

ReefBreak

From www.irma.ie

8th July 2005 - IRMA Welcomes High Court Decision on Illegal File Sharers

IRMA, the Irish Recorded Music Association, today welcomed the decision of the High Court in Dublin to compel a number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to release the names of the 17 individuals engaged in serial file sharing of music.

This High Court action comes after 15 months of educational initiatives to raise awareness of the cultural and economic damage done by illegal file sharing. Abuse of copyright on the Internet has contributed to a EUR28 million drop in music sales in Ireland between 2001 and 2004.

Speaking after the decision, Dick Doyle, Director General of IRMA commented: "We will now be writing to the 17 individuals informing them of the seriousness of their actions. We will offer them the opportunity of settling the action. If they refuse our settlement terms, we will be forced to pursue the matter through the Courts. This is a last resort for the music industry. We hope that this decision will jolt others, particularly parents of teenagers, to realise that unauthorised file sharing is illegal and has consequences".

Selik

ReefBreak wrote:

From www.irma.ie

8th July 2005 - IRMA Welcomes High Court Decision on Illegal File Sharers

IRMA, the Irish Recorded Music Association, today welcomed the decision of the High Court in Dublin to compel a number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to release the names of the 17 individuals engaged in serial file sharing of music.

This High Court action comes after 15 months of educational initiatives to raise awareness of the cultural and economic damage done by illegal file sharing. Abuse of copyright on the Internet has contributed to a EUR28 million drop in music sales in Ireland between 2001 and 2004.

Speaking after the decision, Dick Doyle, Director General of IRMA commented: "We will now be writing to the 17 individuals informing them of the seriousness of their actions. We will offer them the opportunity of settling the action. If they refuse our settlement terms, we will be forced to pursue the matter through the Courts. This is a last resort for the music industry. We hope that this decision will jolt others, particularly parents of teenagers, to realise that unauthorised file sharing is illegal and has consequences".

Hmmm... Over the last few years I've purchased way more music BECAUSE of the fact that I could get songs for free over the internet or p2p! Maybe not the case for everyone but at the end of the day maybe they should look at the exorbitant cost of your average new release cd in the likes of HMV before coming up with such fizz. Oh and they're not even considering lifestyle change demographics along with websites such as Cdwow, Play and Amazon - I pretty much never buy a cd in a shop unless I can't find it online (to buy) or I'm in an extremely impatient mood (well... as impatient as one can get on a 1.5mb connection!)

Gizmodeon

I read the Irish times article
the network they picked these people up on is called GNUTELLA
This is a network used by Limewire!
Completely freaked me out!

MorningStar

From what I can gather there is a movement over to FTP sharing. The P2P stuff is a bit annoying as you can never quite get what you want. After hearing samples I have gone out and bought CDs but as I get to know more people there is less of a need.

monument

Mr Rivers wrote:

Does IRMA only look out for the interests of Irish acts? Did the 17 people get caught for sharing The Frames and Damien Rice?

No, the IRMA does not only 'look out for' Irish acts.

Alpha505

Ive heard the fines have been between 2 and 4 grand?

Robbo

monument wrote:

No, the IRMA does not only 'look out for' Irish acts.

IRMA does not look out for acts. It looks out for the interests of labels, mainly the "big five".

Gegerty

MorningStar wrote:

From what I can gather there is a movement over to FTP sharing. The P2P stuff is a bit annoying as you can never quite get what you want. After hearing samples I have gone out and bought CDs but as I get to know more people there is less of a need.

You can use newsgroups. There's not as much material out there and you need to be tech savvy. It's better for movies. Newsgroups were what the internet used to be before the world wide web, its fast becoming the *safe* file sharing choice of alot of people. Oh, and there's no uploading and you also get lighteneing fast speeds

MorningStar

Gegerty wrote:

You can use newsgroups. There's not as much material out there and you need to be tech savvy. It's better for movies. Newsgroups were what the internet used to be before the world wide web, its fast becoming the *safe* file sharing choice of alot of people. Oh, and there's no uploading and you also get lighteneing fast speeds

Agreed I don't think they are going to be able to stop this. The only hope is if they manage to bring out a new format that is copy protected but I can't see it happening.

www.artofthemix.com

People meet here and then do direct transfers a bit like the newsgroups but easier to find people with what you want. Good fun too. The record industry has to change it's model I don't think anybody disagrees.

The weird thing is I would have though the porn industry would have a bigger copyright infrindgement on the net yet I didn't notice them going crazy?