THE DATA Protection Commissioner has concerns about measures aimed at curbing illegal downloading of music which were agreed between Eircom and major record companies in a settlement of court proceedings early this year, a judge was told yesterday.
Michael McDowell, for the companies, told Mr Justice Peter Kelly at the Commercial Court yesterday he wished to have the case re-entered with a view to having the court clarify the position on the data protection issues raised.
Counsel said this arose because the Data Protection Commissioner, having been consulted by the parties about the proposed measures, had expressed a view that the Data Protection Act was an obstacle to their implementation. The sides wanted clarity as to whether their proposals conformed with the Act, he said.
Mr Justice Kelly said the application to re-enter the proceedings could be brought on January 18th.
In the settlement last January of the action against Eircom by four record companies, Eircom agreed to implement measures aimed at stopping use of its services for illegal free downloading of music.
Willie Kavanagh, chairman of EMI Records and of the Irish Recorded Music Association (Irma), welcomed the settlement and said he expected other internet service providers (ISPs) to follow Eircom’s example.
Both sides agreed to work closely on a joint approach involving the four firms – EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner – providing Eircom with the IP addresses of all persons who they detected to be illegally uploading or downloading copyright works on a peer-to-peer basis.
Eircom agreed to implement a graduated process under which it would: (1) inform broadband subscribers that infringing of copyright had been detected at their IP addresses; (2) warn them they would be disconnected unless infringement ceased and (3) disconnect them in default of compliance with the warning.
The record companies agreed to take all necessary steps to put similar agreements in place with all other ISPs in Ireland.