Matti Robinson
24 Apr 2008 9:29
The Ireland's largest internet service provider Eircom has stood up against the five big record companies. Eircom was sued by the Irish RIAA for allowing illegal sharing to happen in their networks. The companies claim that Eircom's networks are being used "on a grand scale" for sharing copyrighted material.
According to Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), the rapid growth of broadband internet connections in Ireland has explosively increased the amount of illegal downloads. The big four -- EMI Records, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music and Warner Music -- are carrying the suit under the Copyright and Related Rights Acts 2000. They claim that Eircom is responsible for the illegal action and should use a filtering or blocking system, such as CopySense Appliance by Audible Magic. Eircom has so far refused to use any filtering technology and says that they have no legal obligation to monitor the traffic.
The market of sound recordings has declined by 30% in a year from 146 million to 102 million euros, and estimates are that the decline will only accelerate.