Record Companies take legal action against Irish ISP: Objective – Music Piracy Filtering

EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Music, and Warner Music sue Eircom with the purpose of forcing it to start on blocking illegal file-sharing of copyrighted music.

The battle against piracy brings people (with money) together. It seems that a new fresh joining of several music labels, namely "Big 4", intended as an offensive against illegal file-sharing (praised by copyright owners in Ireland) has targeted the Irish ISP Eircom so as to force it to start on blocking P2P music downloads by its subscribers.

The requirement was that Eircom should begin using filtering software to block its users from using P2P and file-sharing services to download files that infringe the copyright law although the existing law in that country has no stipulation regarding the monitoring of the traffic on its network for illegal activities.

Up to this point only individuals were held liable in cases of illegal file-sharing but not anymore – network service providers themselves are now also targeted.

As quoted by ZeroPaid Willie Kavanagh, managing director of EMI Ireland, stated that "…the record industry was experiencing a 'dramatic and accelerating' decline in income and that Eircom was 'well aware' its facilities were being used to violate the property rights of record companies 'on a grand scale.'"

Solicitors – Eurospeak for lawyers – for Eircom emphasize the lack of legal obligation to monitor network traffic for illegal behavior. This ought to be taken into consideration seriously due to the almost inevitable dispute that such a demand would trigger.

What would happen, if, let’s say, an ISP didn’t block a site that supported radical action that gave rise to death or injury. Would victims and their families be allowed to sue and bring them to court for allowing and making easy the performance of the action? To conclude – how and who can actually tell the limits and the parameters of the ISP's responsibility to supervise network traffic?