irma suing irish downloaders

flodis79 · 21-06-2005 09:24PM #1

How far has this come? Is IRMA actually suing an Irish people for downloading music from p2p and similar?

Chalk · 21-06-2005 09:26PM

yeah a guy i knew knows this guy in college who says his cousins mate got charged and fined 17,500eu.

thats about as far as itll get,
bit like eircom charging people for the cap.

flodis79 · 21-06-2005 09:28PM

Really. Was he a heavy user?

Chalk · 21-06-2005 09:30PM

:rolleyes:

he doesnt exist....

21-06-2005 09:30PM

like the matrix or somethin????

aidan_walsh · 21-06-2005 09:32PM

Chalk wrote:

:rolleyes:

he doesnt exist....

IRMA made sure of that. Just a friendly warning, kiddies...

flodis79 · 21-06-2005 09:32PM

No seriously, how much are they imposing penalties? I was looking for information about Ireland to compare in a European perspective.

Tech Pete · 21-06-2005 09:45PM

How about just paying for the **** you steal?

Chalk · 21-06-2005 09:49PM

its not stealing,
its sharing.

Turner · 21-06-2005 09:52PM

A 14 year old girl's parents in the UK have been hit with a bill for £4000. She downloaded 1400 mp3's for her ipod.

dub45 · 21-06-2005 09:55PM

Chief--- wrote:

A 14 year old girl's parents in the UK have been hit with a bill for £4000. She downloaded 1400 mp3's for her ipod.

From today's Guardian and also reported today in other English newspapers:

Mother faces music for girl's illegal downloads

Steven Morris
Tuesday June 21, 2005
The Guardian

A teenager's penchant for the bands Coldplay and Oasis left her mother contemplating prison yesterday.

Sylvia Price has received a demand for £4,000 in compensation by solicitors acting for the music industry after her daughter, Emily, was caught illegally downloading songs by her favourite artists.

Mrs Price, a self-confessed computer illiterate, said: "I don't know where I'm going to get the money from. I'll have to go to prison because I haven't got that kind of money."

As well as using the PC to help with her homework, 14-year-old Emily had been using file-sharing to download 1,400 songs for free.

Because of Emily's age, Mrs Price, 53, of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, is legally responsible to pay any penalty.

A nationwide crackdown organised by the British Phonographic Industry is under way to try to stop illegal downloaders. Thousands of people use file-sharing software which allows them to swap music files, costing the music industry £1.3bn a year in lost sales. At any one time 8.5 million people across the world are file-sharing.

Earlier this month Coldplay's new album, X&Y, was leaked on to the internet a week before its European release. Other artists, including U2 and Madonna, have had to bring forward releases or offer free tracks on websites after their music appeared online before reaching the shops.

The Prices were caught in a third wave of swoops on what the BPI believes are the worst offenders.

Emily said she did not think what she was doing was wrong. "Everyone I know at school does it. I ... didn't know it was wrong," she said.

"I think I've been picked on because my computer is on all the time and people have downloaded music from my files."

Solicitors Wiggin & Co, which pursues internet pirates on behalf of record companies, said Emily had been breaking the law for two years.

Mrs Price has until July 1 to pay the BPI or face a civil action.

BPI spokesman Steve Redmond defended the tactic of targeting the parents of downloaders. He said: "If we don't demonstrate that copyright law has teeth, we're going to be out of business and countless musicians will lose their livelihood too."

StonedParadoX · 21-06-2005 09:59PM

christ iv got 18k of mp3's ( just checked )

i wonder whats gonna happen to me $:\$

Chalk · 21-06-2005 10:04PM

post your name and address and irma will come and tell you.
btw are our real identities, as users of boards.ie, protected in anyway?

like would Mr Devore-alera have to tell irma who stonedparadox really is if they ask?

TerrorFirmer · 21-06-2005 10:05PM

StonedParadoX wrote:

christ iv got 18k of mp3's ( just checked )

i wonder whats gonna happen to me $:\$

I had 200 movies. I deleted everyone of them. Just came home one day - and said fcuk it, even though its a tiny remote chance, would it be worth getting done for? Nope.

flodis79 · 21-06-2005 10:09PM

I heard that they're monitoring 100 songs, a mixture of Top 40 and other songs.

mad m · 21-06-2005 10:14PM

Yup all of Kylie Minogues hits are being monitored.

they should be so lucky.

kin9pin · 21-06-2005 10:15PM

MobileInfantry wrote:

I had 200 movies. I deleted everyone of them. Just came home one day - and said fcuk it, even though its a tiny remote chance, would it be worth getting done for? Nope.

Did you just delete them or remove them completely?

flodis79 · 21-06-2005 10:20PM

I was researching a bit and saw that 350,000 - 450,000 Irish ppl admitted to downloading illegally. Irma brought around 100 cases to justice last year.

Capt'n Midnight · 21-06-2005 10:27PM

StonedParadoX wrote:

christ iv got 18k of mp3's ( just checked )

i wonder whats gonna happen to me $:\$

for a second there I thought you meant 18,000 !
18KB that must be one of those sample sounds

flodis79 wrote:

Really. Was he a heavy user?

Yes, it's glandular and he can't leave the house, so what with being on line all the time and everything and suffering from depression he succombed to temptation..

StonedParadoX · 21-06-2005 10:38PM

yes yes ..thats right heh 18kb of sample files..gotta love them sample files

*looks nerviously for irma operatives*

Gone West · 21-06-2005 10:39PM

flodis79 wrote:

Irma brought around 100 cases to justice last year.

Bullsh1t.

I know people with >6terrabytes of stuff. Wonder what that equals in fines, were they to get caught? :rolleyes:

JackKelly · 21-06-2005 10:43PM

where exactly are these files being monitored? Kazaa?

flodis79 · 21-06-2005 10:43PM

http://www.irma.ie/piracy2004.htm

Even there are ppl with 6 TB of stuff, they stumble on and fine ppl having just 1,000 songs, like the UK case reported today..

Mr_Man · 21-06-2005 11:53PM

This came up a couple of weeks ago in the news. AFAIK the situation is that IRMA have to get the names and addresses of users from the ISP's. However the ISP's can't release the names under the Data Protection Act. Therefore IRMA have to go to court to get the court to direct the ISP to release the names.

Now the question is does the judge order a blanket release of names requested by IRMA, or is it on a case by case basis. I would suspect the latter. So there is a point of diminishing return for IRMA where the legal fees outweigh the supposed damage done.

Off course the simple answer to this is for the Music industry to provide music at reasonable prices, and thus reduce the incentive for the file sharers. If they don't then no doubt the technology will be modified to make tracking the filesharers much more difficult.

Just my 2c

M.

CyberGhost · 22-06-2005 12:40AM

FuzzyLogic wrote:

Bullsh1t.

I know people with >6terrabytes of stuff. Wonder what that equals in fines, were they to get caught? :rolleyes:

wow, you have to introduce me to those people

6tb? what a hell can take that much?

oh and btw about the topic, can't they give a fking break? eircom is sucking all the money out of us from one side irma is starting from another...

lomb · 22-06-2005 12:45AM

i think it will go to fully anonymous p2p eventually, in the mean time theres newsgroups , cant monitor those but its about 11 euro a month for a sub.

AARRRGH · 22-06-2005 12:47AM

As far as I know, DOWNLOADING songs is legal, SHARING is illegal.

besty · 22-06-2005 01:53AM

Mr_Man wrote:

Now the question is does the judge order a blanket release of names requested by IRMA, or is it on a case by case basis. I would suspect the latter. So there is a point of diminishing return for IRMA where the legal fees outweigh the supposed damage done.

i think that is exactly what will happen i think. i dont think that music d/loading is really harming the industry as much as is reported. in fact, in my experience, it has opened up new artists to me and actually made me go out and buy their cd's which i wouldnt have without the downloads. i will never stop buying cd's i want anyway. €13 from CDWOW isnt going to break the bank for something you want

John R · 22-06-2005 02:44AM

What will be interesting is if/when any of these civil cases go to judgement. AFAIK all the reports from UK/USA have been for out of court settlements. Until there is a judgement in the various juristictions it is all an un-known situation.

Civil cases are all about damages, the extent of financial damage to IRMA et al from downloading is unclear, particularly in regards to an individual. If they cannot prove that the downloader would have bought a CD if they had not downloaded the track the whole loss of revenue arguement becomes very shaky. Obviously there are more intangible issues surrounding intellectual property but if damages cannot be proven it will be very difficult to get a large value judgement.

ATM they are relying on bullying and intimidation by issuing actions for huge amounts and then settling for fractions of the original amount. None of these settlements have any bearing on the legal credibility of the actions however.

The General · 22-06-2005 04:09AM

I think they go after people for sharing, not as much for downloading and also, its more bit torrent they watch rather than P2P like kazaa or bearshare.

The General · 22-06-2005 04:11AM

How many people here would actually buy the music they download(if they couldnt download them anymore) i certainly would not and imo most people wouldnt so theres not much of a loss

irma suing irish downloaders

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