Eircom, Irma, lawsuits and website blocking -- the latest

So apparently, Eircom is to block The Pirate Bay to its customers, starting September 1st. Or so claims the solicitors for the major music labels, who have sent a legal letter to rival ISPs asking them to do likewise.

At least one of those ISPs, Chorus NTL, is to "firmly resist" the request by the record labels to block The Pirate Bay, according to people in there. Not sure of BT Ireland's reaction yet.

Update (15.45pm): Eircom will indeed put the block on, a spokeswoman for the operator has just told me. She said that the company intend to hold a "briefing" on the matter on August 31st. I reckon that might change now.

Update: here's a requested UPC (Chorus NTL) statement on the matter:

UPC can confirm it has received a request from solicitors acting on behalf of the Irish divisions of EMI, Warner, Universal and Sony music companies that UPC blocks access to the Pirate Bay website.

This request is separate to ongoing court proceedings between these same companies and UPC with respect to their demand that UPC take certain actions in relation to subscribers allegedly involved in illegal music downloads.

This latest request is apparently further to an unopposed court action between these companies and eircom whereby eircom was ordered to block access to Pirate Bay as of September 1, 2009.

UPC has informed the rightsholders that there is no basis under Irish law requiring an ISP to block access to certain websites and that it will not agree to a request that goes beyond what is currently provided for under Irish law.

UPC has always taken a strong stance against illegal activity and continues to work with rightsholders where there is a legal basis to do so. It takes all steps required by the law to combat specific infringements which are brought to its attention.

Should the rightsholders proceed with their threat of legal action if UPC fails to block access to Pirate Bay, UPC has every intention of vigorously defending its position in Court.

Comments

[Kevin]

Yay, another reason to leave Ireland.

Eircom can work towards a better world where we all pay for music etc. I don't use TPB but this is likely to have a knock-on effect for legal torrent downloads since it is the largest tracker in the world.

The problem here is that it sounds an awful lot like a Chinese solution to a problem that's not Eircoms to begin with. They must be getting a payday for this.

What happens now when EA or someone releases a PC game demo, or large patch through torrents and the main tracker is TPB? Eircom customers can't use it and have to use laboriously slow HTTP servers?

[Fiscal Student]

Why would Chorus come out so strongly on the issue? Is it very expensive for them to block websites??

[Stewart Curry]

Whay are they bothering, seeing as the Pirate Bay is shutting down and going legit?

[Aaron]

Yet they won't block child porn and that sort of thing?

Also, what - from a legal, free speech POV - is the position on them unilaterally blocking websites willy nilly?

You and I know that TPB is a window into a world of copyright infringement, but what's next?

[Stewart Curry]

What's next is the dozens of Pirate Bay clones that'll come along seeing as TPB's index is available as a torrent. Just don;t get the logic here.

[Mark]

it just shows how out of touch certain industries are with the web, including those who bring it to you!!

the biggest action is non action on this though (as it is with everything) industries will chip away at your rights when they can find new ways to extract money from you.

so keep an eye on this. i know a few people jumped off the eircom ship but i expected more really. it shows that a lot of people are not informed how issues such as this affect their future freedom of information, how it will cost them or they just don't care. the apathy monster is rife in Ireland. that's how we get screwed so often.

TPB is gone.. but it was just one. It was a brand in it's own right. It got attention because it rebelled. People took notice.

The music / movie industry complain about figures of imaginary money they didn't make this year. But look at the money they spent on legal fees... would they not be better off firing the old boys and bringing in new blood new inject some online life into their industries.

[andyaz]

Eircom stated in February that they won't block TPB without a court order. Was such a court order sought, do you know?

[Bernie Goldbach]

FWIW, I believe HEANET have also blocked TPB. I know HEANET are issuing nastygrams to colleges and universities when they suspect non-authenticated entry on HEANET bandwidth to visit any site on their hand-rolled file sharing list.

[TJ]

Andyaz - the order was granted on July 24th. I've more details here:
http://www.tjmcintyre.com/2009/08/eircom-to-block-pirate-bay-from.html

[tonyl]

@Bernie - what evidence do you have of HEAnet acting like this?

[Gavan]

I would suggest that if you are an eircom customer who feels strongly about this that you contact them via the complaints section of their website and inform them that you will move to an alternate telecom provider if they implement this decision. Enough negative feedback from their customer base could perhaps change their minds. You can access their complaint form here: http://www.eircom.ie/cgi-bin/bvsm/bveircom/customer-carea.jsp?site=Bus&chanId=-536882422&BV_SessionID=@@@@0964625846.1250846446@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccfadeidkjhkjdcefeceiedffndffj.0

I sent my complaint in this morning and will be encouraging my colleagues and friends to do likewise.

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