Day and Night Digital | Irish Independent

Two months back I wrote about the music and movie industries plans to implement a “three strikes and you’re out” rule to internet users found downloading copyrighted material with the help of internet service providers. While Eircom capitulated to the demand, promising to shut off users, it seems to be the only ISP in the world which has rolled over so easily.

In Australia, the country’s third biggest ISP iiNet has refused to admit that that their users are engaged in illicit file-sharing in a court case initiated by reps of the movie industry while more tellingly, the European Parliament has approved a report from Greek MEP Stavros Lambrinidis which defends the rights and freedoms of internet users. The majority endorsement has been seen as a rejection to the Sarkozy-approved proposal of implementing a ‘3 strikes’ rule in France. A similar rejection has purported to have occured in Denmark leading to the The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s (IFPI) Jesper Bay admittance that “We have to deal with the political reality that there will be no 3 strikes [in Denmark]”.

In the U.S where lobby groups can bend the ear of politicians, the RIAA has publicly announced that they will no longer sue internet users who file share and are instead attempting to work with ISPs to implement the three strikes policy. While it was suggested on March 25th that American ISPs Comcast and AT&T were officially entering a “trial” phase for this strategy, the very next day an official statement from Comcast categorically stated “We have no plans to test a so-called ‘three-strikes-and-you’re-out’ policy,” leaving the surety of such plans in doubt.

At home, other ISPs under the representation of The Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland (ISPAI) have called the threat of legal action “spurious” before adding such actions could “impact on user privacy, damage the development of new internet services and hurt Ireland’s standing as an e-commerce hub”. A Blackout Ireland site in opposition of the three strikes rule is asking supporters to black out their internet avatars to raise awareness, to voice their disapproval with Communications Minister Eamon Ryan, their local TDs and their ISPs.