Irish ISP agrees to disconnect repeat P2P users
- From: "Nigel Leigh Oldfield" <webmanager@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2009 19:48:33 GMT
Irish ISP agrees to disconnect repeat P2P users
"Three strikes" rules have come to Ireland in a sudden and unexpected
way, as the country's largest ISP settles a court case brought by the
music industry and agrees to take action on file-swappers. Repeat
offenders will be disconnected from the 'Net.
By Nate Anderson | Last updated January 29, 2009 1:10
Irish ISP agrees to disconnect repeat P2P users
One of Ireland's largest ISPs, Eircom, has capitulated to the major
music labels and agreed to implement a full "graduated response"
program?complete with disconnections. Users get two warnings regarding
file-sharing, and a third violation brings down the banhammer. The
music industry has already said that it intends to pursue the same
agreement with Ireland's other ISPs.
The dispute began some time ago when the Irish branches of EMI, Warner,
Universal, and Sony filed suit against Eircom. They charged that the
ISP was essentially aiding and abetting piracy by doing things like
advertising its services on The Pirate Bay, and the labels believed
they could get a judge to force the ISP to install network monitoring
equipment.
With the trial finally under way at Dublin's High Courts this week, the
labels and Eircom got together and hashed out a settlement instead of
proceeding to judgment, and it's a settlement that keeps network
sniffing gear out of Eircom's network. Instead, the ISP has agreed to
send warnings and eventually to disconnect its users based on IP
addresses provided by the music industry's investigators.
As with most graduated response programs, the deal keeps the music
industry from gaining direct access to subscriber data or to ISP
networks. Instead, investigators use common tools to observe
file-sharing, then log the IP addresses in question (those that belong
to Eircom, at least) and pass them to the ISP. Eircom looks up the
account associated with that address at the time in question, then
shoots out a warning.
Warning number one is friendly enough. Warning number two says that a
disconnection will happen if the activity continues. Warning number
three drops the A-bomb.
Weighing the evidence
While such graduated response mechanisms have the potential to be a
huge improvement of massive litigation against end users, the process
is generally understood to need some form of appeal or defense. It's
not clear from the reporting coming out of Ireland that the Eircom
agreement contains any such provisions. It appears that the music
industry hands over its evidence, Eircom evaluates it, and a decision
is made. Users, at least for now, seem to be shut out.
The need for a fair judicial process (even if a judge is not actually
involved) is one that even Cary Sherman of the RIAA made clear in his
recent interview with Ars on the topic of graduated response, which he
is trying to hammer out on a voluntary basis in the US. And when it
comes to a sanction as severe as disconnection, the UK made clear this
week that it saw huge legal problems with turning such a process over
to industry bodies.
But Eircom has agreed to the plan on a voluntary basis, without any
government pressure. The move lead the Electronic Frontier Foundation
to blast the ISP over its claim that it will consider the evidence
presented by the music industry before shutting anyone off.
"The difference is that an ISP is not a court; and its customers will
never have a chance to defend themselves against the recording
industry's accusations and 'proof,'" said an EFF blog post. "To whom,
without judicial oversight, has the ISP obligated itself to provide
meaningful due process and to ensure that the standard of proof has
been met?"
Eircom has apparently accepted the idea that the ISP has some
responsibility for the actions of its users online. Assuming that the
labels bring lawsuits against smaller ISPs, it is not yet clear whether
any will be willing to risk the expense and hassle of a trial,
especially when the music industry is seeking far-reaching judicial
orders that would mandate network content filtering. Given the stakes,
ISPs might well decide that graduated response, even with the tough
disconnection penalty, is better than risking a loss in court.
The agreement sets Ireland alone, so far as we can tell. While the
French HADOPI law could bring government backing to the three strikes
idea (complete with disconnections), Eircom may be the only ISP in the
world voluntarily cutting P2P users off without court orders. It also
means that Irish labels are pursuing?and Eircom has agreed to?a plan
that was explicitly rejected by the European Parliament last year
(though the European Commission watered down this stance when it went
over the bill in question).
While graduated response is now on the US radar screen, it's a delicate
issue here. Our own attempts at getting answers about which ISPs might
be involved have been met with stony silence (except from Verizon,
which is not involved). In Europe, the debate is much more robust, as
the UK, France, and Ireland all know, and it has been going on for
years.
Eircom's willingness to disconnect users will certainly embolden both
sides. The music industry will use one victory to push for more, while
opponents will push even harder for the EU and national governments to
put limits on the sanctions process.
http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/01/irish-isp-agrees-to-disconne
ct-repeat-p2p-users.ars
***
WM
www.critest.com
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