THE MUSIC industry’s plans to cut off the internet connections of people found to be sharing music illegally were thrown into disarray following a High Court ruling yesterday.
Representatives of the music industry, internet service providers and the Government will now meet to see if a new approach to combat music piracy online can be agreed.
The Irish record industry failed in its attempts to have an injunction brought against TV and broadband provider UPC which would have forced it to cut off illegal filesharers.
In his High Court ruling yesterday, Mr Justice Peter Charleton estimated that 675,000 people were “likely to be engaged in illegal downloading from time to time”. But he said he was unable to grant the injunction because Ireland had not correctly implemented European Union directives on copyright protection.
The companies had claimed UPC – Ireland’s third biggest broadband provider, with 15 per cent of the market – was liable for acts of infringement by its customers.
After the ruling, UPC said it “does not condone piracy” but cannot be held responsible for what is transmitted across its network by subscribers. A spokeswoman for Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan said he was committed to resolving the issue, but there was a “fine balancing act” between freedom of access to the internet and the rights of music artists and record companies.
The record industry is pressing for a “three strikes and you’re out” policy towards illegal filesharers but, to date, only Eircom has signed up to it, and it has yet to disconnect any subscriber for transgressions.
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, which oversees copyright issues, said only two countries – France and the UK – had introduced such a policy and both faced legal difficulties in doing so.
The department said the issue was a “very complex matter involving copyright and related rights in music, data protection, internet privacy and right of access to the internet”. Eircom is seeking legal advice as to whether it should continue implementation of a three strikes policy.