EircomTribunal web site launched

BKtje

Can Eircom actually have it taken down?
The site gives only factual informatiom as far as i could see unlike errorcom, which was obviously taking the piss.

For them to try and close it down would be like them trying to hide the facts. There is no law against showing facts? is there?*

(seeing as this is Ireland i aint 100% sure )

Hannibal_12

Fantastic, absolutely fantastic. Finally more people are starting to realise how terrible internet access is in this country. Terrible in so many ways that are all wonderfully elucidated in that brilliant website. I have fired of Emails to everyone I know with a link to it as well as a email of praise to the creator(s).

matthiku

Here are some more facts from independent sources about the comateous DSL/broadband situation in Ireland:

http://www.point-topic.com/cgi-bin/download.asp?file=DSLAnalysis\The+struggle+for+copmetitive+broadband+access+in+Europe.htm
Watch all the nils on the Ireland line! :mad: And look below on that page for more interesting details.

Or this: http://www.point-topic.com/scripts/directory/profile.asp?country=6
I am sure, you will find more interesting figures on this site. And I hope you won't get charged too much by surfing there! ;-)

NUA, "the worlds leading ressource for internet trends & statistics", ironically an Irish company, also talks about DSL:
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/?f=VS&art_id=905358314&rel=true
But I haven't seen them mentioning the situation in Ireland! :mad:

Isn't it a shame and disgraceful to see that even Greenland has a better Internet usage then Ireland:
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/europe.html


Briefly , as a background on myself:
I came to this wonderful country Ireland about 4 years ago, to work in the software industry and found myself thrown back into Stone Age regarding Internet access, despite living in Ennis, the "Information Age Town". Being used to have ISDN for several years in Germany (highly subsidized at that time), my first question in the Telecom shop downtown was: And what about ISDN? (DSL or brodband generally wasn't yet a major topic) The answer was bleak ignorance! I couldn't believe it. And that in the Information Age town! Ok, after further investigation I found that ISDN (under a different name which I can't remember now) was actually available, but only for businesses (and I didn't dare to ask for the prize at that time!), due to availabilty limitations, as I was told. So I gave up about that idea for the time being and was forced to fall back on analog dialup lines. Since then I moved to another area within Ennis and there the line was so bad that I only got a connection speed between 26k and 33k (rarely) with my 56k modem. On top of that, (I had signed up to Eircom.net, oceanfree and gofree.indigo) I sometimes had to try several times and different providers to get a connection at all! Finally, I gave up wating for broadband and signed up for ISDN recently and now I surf on a still unsatisfactory 64000 baud speed, but at least without the dial up hassle. I still feel betrayed because of the outrageous cost for beeing online. And my children very often have to do researches on the Internet for their homework! How does the Government thinks I should be able to afford that?

Looking at the fact that Ireland is one of the most expensive places in Europe to live anyhow, I wonder why there is not more outcry about this in other areas (like food) as well. Please forgive my impertinence now, but is there not a certain apathy in the general Irish community about high prices? And/or the opinion/perception that "the higher the price, the better the quality"? I am talking generally here, of course this site (irelandoffline.com and eircomtribunal.com) are showing that some people are starting to think and rebell.

Sorry for that long winded posting....

Matthias

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Once freedom is outlawed, only the Outlaws will have freedom!

williamb

On the question of taking it down..I'm not a lawyer, but have been involved in some episodes like this.

There's two approaches Eircom could try to get it removed :-

1. Trademark/copyright infringement. I don't see them getting very far on this. I see an obviously parodic version of the Eircom logo, which no one could possible confuse with the real thing, and very little else under this category.

2. Libel. Truth is an absolute defence in libel cases. If Eircom threaten to sue for libel, they're going to end up in court arguing about what parts of the site are wrong. I don't see this as an attractive route for them.

Of course the problem is that i suspect Eircom have more financial resources than the site owners, and probably more than the site hosters. The fact they're unlikely to succeed legally doesn't mean they're not going to try legal threats to get the site removed.

I see the site is hosted in the States, that makes Eircom's lawyers job harder.

Stokolan

Nice job...

I have mailed the link to most ppl i know and shall get mailled around work tomorrow..

pertinax

The more i read of it the more i like it.
The rat might be fodder for their lawyers even though i dont think they eat much ratburgers.

There is a bend over and take it culture in ireland. I Think theirs a lot of reasons for it. One is the ignorance and contempt of polititians and civil servants who demand the public be punished for having the audacity to exist.

But the real killer is the valley of the squinting windows. Except it isnt a a valley its a country. that and the apathy whether its cause they dont know that theres better out there i dont know.

spongebob

or is that the other way around?

pertinax

rats know when to leave a sinking ship, come to think of it so do i!
emigration ahead.

Mark_irl

If only school projects were like this in my day,

Dustaz

Somehow i dont think its a school project

Jaysus, if it was, A+++++++++

mike65

Fantastic (why hav'nt any of us done something this good?! )

I've just e-mailed Pat Kennys radio programme. I suggest you do likewise including the url of course.

todaypk@rte.ie

Mike.

eircomtribunal

We are thrilled by your response!
Thanks for your emails and postings.

All contributions to the site are welcome, be it ideas, texts, pictures or notifications of typos.

We have not heard from EIRCOM and don't think we will.
Of course we are angry at the goat plundering the garden, but we know (and hope to have made it clear), that the ones who let the goat in are deserving the blame. We have not heard from them either.

We take up your kind offers in case of eventualities:
A ZIP file of the entire web site is now available at:
http://www.eircomtribunal.com/et.zip

Peter

Xian

Originally posted by mike65
Fantastic (why hav'nt any of us done something this good?! )

Cos we're tihk, das whoi!

Class!

mike65

Originally posted by matthiku

Looking at the fact that Ireland is one of the most expensive places in Europe to live anyhow, I wonder why there is not more outcry about this in other areas (like food) as well. Please forgive my impertinence now, but is there not a certain apathy in the general Irish community about high prices? And/or the opinion/perception that "the higher the price, the better the quality"?

Hi Matthias,

You might want to read this thread -

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=61517

fisty

This is exactly what was needed...
This is what journalists want, they'll have a field day with all these hard facts from the one source, writing letters to major newspapers now....
have the zip file tucked safe (although I don't think we'll need it).
Once again Fair Play.

Hannibal_12

Going to write a few letters myself as well. With regards to that, does anyone have the email address of that guy in the Evening Herald that does the Log On section. He done a review of mac OS 10.2 the other day and seems quite knowledgeable. Ronan something ahh cant remember.

pork99

excellent - best Irish web site I've seen this year

ediot awards spot on!!!! deadly!!!!

congratulations on putting our case so well in these ediot awards, if I was writing anything about Bertie Ahern, Dick Roche, Mary O'Rourke etc it would just degenerate into a string of expletives. You really point them up as worse than useless and do it very skillfully - well done again

Meh

Congratulations, you made it to the Register:

Eircom savaged by satire site
By Tim Richardson
Posted: 03/09/2002 at 14:32 GMT

Campaigners in Ireland have launched a scathing attack on the country's lack of affordable and fast Internet access.

A new Web site, EircomTribunal.com, rips into what it describes as the "saboteurs of the Internet development in Ireland" pulling no punches as it tears into incumbent telco, Eircom, regulator ODTR and the Government.

Wickedly funny and satirical, EircomTribunal.com also delivers a serious message. It claims that Net access in Ireland is so expensive it makes email "more expensive than letter mail".

And it points to independent research that relegates Ireland to little more than a Third World e-Nation.

"In an act of national sabotage the Irish citizen has been priced out of using the Internet.

"Its [EircomTribunal.com's] aim is to prepare the ground for a 'Counterstrike' against the saboteurs of the Internet development in Ireland.

"EircomTribunal.com will approach the incompetence and gullibility on the side of the State, and the lack of vision and the greediness of the de facto monopoly, EIRCOM, with serious argument and with satire," it said.

A spokeswoman for Eircom declined to comment on the site or its content. No one from ODTR was available at the time of writing to comment on the site. ®

Mr E

Fantastic!

- Dave.

Clamor

Is it my imigination, but is the site down already?

tuxy

its your imigination it works for me

Clamor

I checked again. This is the error I'm getting for
trying to access this address http://www.eircomtribunal.com/index.html
Are there any mirrors up.

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Server Not Available

We're sorry, our web servers are currently unavailable.
If this problem persists for more than 5 minutes please drop us a line webmaster@craigslist.org

Thanks for using Craigslist and sorry for the hassle.

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Generated Tue, 03 Sep 2002 17:29:50 GMT by elf.craigslist.org (Squid/2.4.STABLE6)

oeNeo

Working fine here.

Bravo on the site, it's absolutely brilliant.

Clamor

I'll try it from home later, hopefully that will do.

morgana

Site still up & working fine.
Congrats on an excellent site - inbetween inarticulate grunts & unspeakables meant for Eircom the site made good reading and plenty of munition for the next Eircon rant ...

El_MUERkO

Quality site



[sig edited]

LoBo

Originally posted by Muck
I know that they will get their €200 an hour wind and piss in a pinstripe suit merchants onto these poor secondary school students.

I would find it VERY ironic if Eircom have to pay their lawyers by the hour..

BoneCollector

i sent the register a mail on the week end (about ercomtribunal and ireland offline
anyway... here is the result

The Register

MrPudding

Nice

mneylon

Originally posted by eircomtribunal
We are thrilled by your response!
We take up your kind offers in case of eventualities:
A ZIP file of the entire web site is now available at:
http://www.eircomtribunal.com/et.zip

Peter

Mirror now available at:EirocomTribunal.blacknightsolutions.com