The former state monopoly ISP, which is now privately owned, has
agreed to give two warnings to subscribers before cutting them
off.
Record industry group the International Federation of the
Phonographic Industries (IFPI) said that it would be taking action
against other ISPs to ensure they did the same.
"The record companies will supply Eircom with the IP addresses
of all persons who they detect illegally uploading or downloading
copyrighted works on a P2P [peer to peer] basis," said a statement
from the IFPI.
"Eircom has agreed that it will from now on implement a
graduated process," it said. "The record companies have agreed that
they will take all necessary steps to put similar agreements in
place with all other ISPs in Ireland."
The case involved the four major labels EMI, Universal, Warner
and Sony.
Eircom said that when it received the labels' list of people
they suspected of engaging in illegal file-sharing, it would tell
its customers that infringement had been detected.
If the activity continues Eircom will warn the subscriber that
they will be cut off if there is no change in behaviour. If the
file sharing continues the customer will be disconnected.
EMI Ireland managing director Willie Kavanagh is also the head
of the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), which is affiliated
to the IFPI.
"[This is] something we've had to work together to make sure
this got to a stage where we can deal with what is an enormous
difficulty within the Irish and worldwide record business," he told
broadcaster RTE.
The 'three strikes and you're out' policy is a popular one with
rights holders, who are lobbying Governments across Europe to force
ISPs to implement it.
The UK Government stopped short of including such a demand in
its Digital Britain report last month. It said that it plans to
force ISPs to pass details of subscriber activity to rights holders
but did not demand that they disconnect users.
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