Eircom Anti-Piracy System Rejected?

ILikeTurtles

A RULING AGAINST Eircom’s ‘three strikes’ anti-online piracy system has been described as “a massive blow” to the music industry.
IT law expert TJ McIntyre told TheJournal.ie that the reported ruling by the Data Protection Commissioner was highly significant, as the entertainment industry fights to prevent people downloading music and films for free.
Under the system agreed with several large record companies in 2009, Eircom broadband customers who were found to have illegally downloaded copyrighted material three times would have their internet access cut off.
But Mark Tighe reports in the Sunday Times that the Data Protection Commissioner has ordered Eircom to halt the practice. It’s understood the ruling is based on privacy concerns over the use of web surfers’ IP addresses to identify them.
McIntyre said the decision was especially significant as it follows a recent European Court of Justice ruling, which held that monitoring web users at the behest of copyright holders was an infringement on their right to privacy.
“Now both the courts and the offical DPC are begining to realise the fundamental right of people to access the internet, and not to be monitored while they do so,” he said.
However McIntyre, who also chairs advocacy group Digital Rights Ireland, rejected concerns that the ruling effectively offered carte blanche for pirates. He said those who upload copyright material can still be pursued.
“The music industry can still do what it has always done, which is look for people who are uploading music and take action against them, rather than looking for ISPs to do their work for them,” he said.
He added the music industry may now attempt to challenge the ruling in court, or look for legislative change to protect its copyrights.

Thoughts?!

Question - To use uTorrent again or not?! :P

actual article - http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/massive-blow-to-music-industry-as-eircom-anti-piracy-measures-rejected-307584-Dec2011/

Saggitarius

I heard about that and a bit surprised me, because Eircom itself wrote if you go on blocked website:
"eircom would like to reassure customers that:

-eircom will not monitor customer’s activities at any stage, nor will it place any monitoring equipment or software on its network in order to facilitate this block.
-eircom will not provide personal details or any information relating to customers to any third party, including the record companies."

So in light of that, what is the truth? I mainly mean on the first part of the first paragraph (marked bold)

ILikeTurtles

Maybe it was just a scare tactic? But I got a strike within a week of it coming into effect, so its contradictory?!

Saggitarius

ILikeTurtles wrote: »

Maybe it was just a scare tactic? But I got a strike within a week of it coming into effect, so its contradictory?!

You think, like the household charge?

skytop

ILikeTurtles wrote: »

Maybe it was just a scare tactic? But I got a strike within a week of it coming into effect, so its contradictory?!

How was your "strike" administered?

Its very hard to know how to approach this?

Johnboy1951

Saggitarius wrote: »

I heard about that and a bit surprised me, because Eircom itself wrote if you go on blocked website:
"eircom would like to reassure customers that:

-eircom will not monitor customer’s activities at any stage, nor will it place any monitoring equipment or software on its network in order to facilitate this block.
-eircom will not provide personal details or any information relating to customers to any third party, including the record companies."

So in light of that, what is the truth? I mainly mean on the first part of the first paragraph (marked bold)

A I understood it at the time, Eircom did not do any monitoring, but accepted the IP address they were given by some complainant, checked their records, and issued the 'strike' to the customer who had that IP address at the time the infringement was alleged to have taken place.