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Testing 1-2

You have to wonder if IRMA have thought through their high profile court case against Eircom to shut down access to Sweden’s Pirate Bay torrent site. Apart from further alienating their potential customers they have just really given a massive amount of free press to the methods and concepts of downloading via torrents, exposing it to people who would never have experienced it otherwise.

Less than three days after Eircom has closed the virtual door on the soon-to-be-legalised Pirate Bay than we can already find a home grown alternative in PirateBay.ie

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

Interesting article from Wired.com on how Irish traditional music has infiltrated the most unusual medium – the modern video game!

Irish Music for Videogame Music Fans | Game | Life from Wired.com:

Irish Music for Videogame Music Fans
By Chris Kohler August 22, 2008
There’s a significant amount of crossover between Irish traditional music and videogame soundtracks.
Some game composers cite Celtic musicians and musical groups as direct influences on their styles, for one. Their videogame soundtracks occasionally actually go so far as to feature performances by world-class Irish musicians.
Why? Certainly there are many different genres of music from which game composers have borrowed to create musical accompaniments to videogame action. But there’s no mistaking the clear similarity between the forms, especially when we’re talking about music from older videogames. Irish traditional tunes are simple, often unaccompanied melody lines that are brief, easy to remember and loop back upon themselves infinitely.

Crosshaven’s Bi-Annual Boats ‘n’ Booze Fest has kicked off for 2008.

An interesting story here suggests that due to competition laws in Belgium mobile networks are not allowed to tie phones to contracts. According to this site, this means that the new iPhone 3G must be unlocked by default. If this is true (and it seems to be) then there will be a lot of European customers rushing to Belgium either physically or online to grab an iPhone if they have difficulty forking over huge amounts of cash for restrictive plans in their own countries. i.e. o2 Ireland!

Belgium’s Mobistar doesn’t waffle over iPhone 3G plans:
Belgium carrier Mobistar has offered details on its suggested iPhone 3G plans.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iphone, Mobistar, Belgium, unlocked iphone 3G

The Brown Corporation has only one product to sell. I can say no more. Just have a look.
The Brown Corporation

Not likely, knowing those market -gouging toerags! However it’s an interesting precedent for the new iPhone. Unlimited data would certainly make the Irish O2 tariffs easier to swallow but I would be very surprised if O2 decided to change their position at the head of the “Rip-Off Ireland Retailers Club!”

iPhone 3G free* in UK with O2

The future will be widgetized! Your widgets will have widgets! Here’s another one.