Irish ISP Wins Major Legal Victory Against Record Companies 96
An anonymous reader writes "The High Court in Dublin ruled today that there was no precedent in Irish law to force ISPs to identify and disconnect people accused of illegally downloading copyrighted files. The court case was spurred by objections to the recording industry's three-strikes system from Irish internet provider UPC. Earlier this year, Eircom, one of Ireland's other large ISPs, gave in and implemented the system, as we discussed previously. This resulted in many of the more 'technical' users leaving that ISP in droves. Nice to see an ISP willing to take a stand."
UPC... (Score:5, Informative)
Just a note ... UPC is not an Irish ISP in particular ... they're also in other countries, like Romania where I am. In other countries it's called Chello but they're slowly re-branding in some: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chello [wikipedia.org]
Re:Economics (Score:5, Informative)
Only if consumers have choice. In the US, were most of the country only has 1 or 2 choices for broad band services, there is no meaningful choice.
-Rick
Or even just 1 choice. Personally, I can get my broadband (god I hate how misused that term is) access from Comcast, or I can get a dial-up modem, that's my choices. So I'm functionally under a monopoly, if Comcast does something I don't like, like eliminating USENET service without lowering my bill, then I'm free to suck it up or do without internet.
Re:Economics (Score:2, Informative)
Exactly. In smaller countries like this, it is feasible for multiple companies to build out infrastructure.
In the US however, we're much more spread out. 40 out of our 50 states are larger than entire country of Ireland. It's just much harder for multiple companies to cover that much area, particularly with so much of the mid-west being sparsely populated farmland.
In almost everything but large cities you have at most 2 choices for broadband. Some don't even have that. I myself have only the DSL offered by the phone company. No cable access is available. Luckily I'm fairly satisfied with the speed and such we get, albeit at a higher cost than most pay, but if I wasn't, my only option to change ISP's would be to sell the house and move.
RTFA: Not a major victory -- not a victory at all (Score:5, Informative)
I saw this story covered at BoingBoing [boingboing.net] earlier and I have to say -- has anyone actually read this article?
This is not a major victory. This is a temporary set-back for the record labels who wish for overreaching legal powers to stop the unstoppable.
Here are some very meaningful excerpts from the same story covered by the Irish Times [irishtimes.com]:
"...the judge said laws were not in place in Ireland to enforce disconnections over illegal downloads... this gap in legislation meant Ireland was not complying with European law."
"The judge made it very clear that an injunction would be morally justified but that the Irish legislature had failed in its obligation to confer on the courts the right to grant such injunctions, unlike other EU states."
"Irish Recorded Music Association director-general Dick Doyle said his office would pressure the Government to reform the law in favour of record labels."
RTFA
Re:Economics (Score:5, Informative)
Please quit spreading this misinformation. We aren't more spread out than several countries that completely kick our asses in both rural and metro internet access.
And being spread out *still* doesn't provide any justification why there would be effective monopolies with poor service in most major metro areas.
U.S. citizens are reamed for Internet access. Stop playing the Stockholm syndrome victim and acting as an industry apologist.
--Jeremy
Re:Economics (Score:2, Informative)
I'd like to see the geographical breakdown between ISP's in Ireland. If a monopoly doesn't exist for any particular region, then yes. Your claim is substantiated.
Eircom are a former state owned incumbent, they don't quite have a total monopoly but are many people's "default choice" of provider. Because the Irish market is quite small there are relatively few resellers and outside of major urban areas there are few other choices apart from mobile based operators.
The original article mentioned "This resulted in many of the more 'technical' users leaving that ISP in droves". They didn't exactly attract technical users before. Until quite recently their default ADSL package had only a 1gb download limit and charged 36 cents PER MEGABYTE after that. For a while it was actually cheaper to use mobile broadband. They have improved their offerings a bit recently but its not brilliant compared with elsewhere in Europe.
Re:Economics (Score:5, Informative)
Here in the UK, BT are deploying VDSL2-based FTTC despite having to open their networks to others, with the prices they charge to others being regulated. So it can be done.