Ireland drops three-strike piracy law in favor of blocks
updated 07:30 pm EST, Mon December 19, 2011
Vicrory for file-sharers may be short-lived
Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) has ordered that the Irish ISP Eircom must halt its practice of blocking subscribers from accessing the Internet after three instances of illegal file-sharing. The DPC issued its ruling based on individuals' privacy rights. Government officials reacted by promising to issue an order that will prevent subscribers from accessing alleged illegal file sharing sites instead.
In December 2009, Eircom began to implement a policy that would increasingly penalize subscribers who persistently infringed on copyrights and downloaded or shared protected media. After three instances, subscribers would be subject to disconnection from the ISP's broadband services. Then, in October 2010, the ISP mistakenly sent out warnings to several hundred completely innocent subscribers. In the aftermath, the DPC became involved, and now has ruled a complete halt to the practice.
Ireland's Minister of State for Enterprise, Seán Sherlock, reportedly will issue an order early next year that will allow music publishers and other rightsholders to go to court to require the country’s ISPs to block subscribers access to alleged infringing sites. [via TorrentFreak]
