Eircom, Ireland’s leading broadband provider amongst other Internet Service Provider, received letters from solicitors threatening legal action recently. Basically, if the ISPs do not put in place a system, which would result in the disconnection of broadband service from those who continue to download music illegally, they will be taken to court.
The legal threats originated from the music industry comprising of: EMI Records, Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Music.
Funnily enough, hosting firm Blacknight Solutions also confirmed that they had received the letters. This seems strange to me since Blacknight are a Hosting Provider, not an Internet Service Provider. I guess it is irrelevant to the music industry and everyone has been painted with the same brush.
They may argue that, in the past, making an example of a student was not effective in deterring others from downloading illegal music even though it is a lot easier to sue a student who cannot afford a lawyer than a corporation that can unleash a team of lawyers.
Another argument could be… do you sue your local council for allowing people to speed, drink and drive, drive stolen vehicles, hit and runs, etc on our roads? Do you sue the contactors who built the roads?!
It also appears that ISPs are calling for the Government to consider amending copyright law to give more protection. This would mean they would not be liable for traffic that customers sent or received over their network.
"ISPs are intermediaries. They are not, in law, responsible for what internet users do, any more than ‘the post office’ is responsible for what individuals send in the mail," said TJ McIntyre, chairman of Digital Rights Ireland (DRI). "In fact, European law specifically states that they may not be put under a general obligation to monitor the information they transmit." [1]
DRI said that if the action was successful it would invade the privacy of internet users and make users pay the cost of monitoring themselves on behalf of private industry. It also said that filtering technology was not good enough and that it could interfere with legitimate internet use. [1]
"This action undermines this principle and threatens the privacy of internet users – in much the same way as if [the post office] had to open and examine the contents of every letter they carry," said McIntyre. [1]
There is growing international pressure on ISPs to tackle illegal file-sharing by users. France is introducing a trial of a system that forces ISPs to block infringing material this summer, while a Belgian court last year ordered an ISP there to filter traffic. [1]
The UK Government has said that it will introduce a law forcing ISPs to disconnect illegal file-sharers later this year if the internet access and music industries cannot come to an agreement before then. The Government is believed to favour a system of staged warnings to users with a final sanction of disconnection for persistent file-sharers. [1]
Although I am not condoning piracy, especially those who actually make money selling pirated software, I do feel that we could be moving into a new era where the Internet becomes more and more censored. I do think it’s fair to say that the music industry would be better off not creating a rumpus over the fact that piracy happens, and start focusing on actual solutions in the market.
Some may argue that the Record Labels have turned this into a promotion by choosing the ridiculous lawsuit route. Either way, the letters have been sent, and it will be interesting to see how things pan out during the coming week.
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