What’s happened? It seems I’ve woken up in Cold War-era China! No, it’s actually Ireland in 2009 where large corporations are now seeking to control what citizens can view and access on the internet. Where is the law in all of this? Well, absent actually.
The original case has now been well discussed and reported across Irish and international media. Eircom in a world-first has come to an agreement with four major record labels represented by IRMA to suspend the internet access of any customer suspected of accessing copyrighted material ie music via Eircom’s network.
Full article here:
Internet users face shutdown over illegal music downloads
Unsurprisingly there has been a huge reaction from internet users:
Eircom to cut off Music File Sharers
Now that the dust is settling there is a growing movement to take action and protest against the government, Eircom, IRMA and of course the record labels behind this profit-motivated attack on personal freedom. Anybody who uses the internet in Ireland really needs to voice their opposition to these moves by Eircom and IRMA. Irish bloggers have been vocal, and other sites have been created especially to draw attention to the problem.
Music industry pushing for internet filtering as well as “three strikes” – what can you do about it?
As well as making your opinions known to all of the parties involved it would also be useful to contact each and every publicly listed member of IRMA by phone, post or email and let them know what we think of their organisation’s actions.
A list of members is available on the IRMA site here:
IRMA Members
More information is available at the following links:
Eircom Filtering the Internet
IRMA Threatens Irish ISPs
Blackout Ireland
A sample Blackout Ireland letter to the ISPs
