Eircom, the largest broadband internet service provider in Ireland, has been taken to court by four major record companies aimed at
compelling Eircom to take measures ('implement filters') to prevent its networks being used for the
illegal downloading of music.
According to Ireland.com, the case is the first in Ireland aimed at internet service providers, rather than individual illegal downloaders.
Due to illegal downloading and other factors, the Irish music industry is experiencing "a dramatic and accelerating decline" in income, with the Irish market suffering a decline in total sales from €146 million in 2001 to €102 million last year, said Willie Kavanagh, managing director of EMI records (Ireland) and chairman of the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA).
Mr Kavanagh told the High Court he would attribute a substantial portion of that decline to illegal peer-to-peer downloading services and the increasing availability of broadband internet access. Although I tend to think it's the 'other factors' rather than illegal downloading that is at the core of this problem.
Mr Kavanagh said that, "with the greatest of respect" to Eircom, it was "well aware" its facilities were being used to violate the property rights of record companies "on a grand scale".
With the greatest of respect, Mr Kavanagh, I think you guys are clutching at the last straws here to try and bring your business back to what it once was. It was a golden era and it's hard to accept that it is gone.
Suing the individuals is costly have not been working and now you're trying to get some sort of filter implemented at the ISP level? Come on, what's next? Trying to sue the computer makers for giving pirates a platform to pirate music?
Piracy is a factor but it is not the major factor. Poor public image of major labels mistreating the artists and the fact that you're trying to sue and blame everyone else for the decrease in sales is getting old. No one cares about the millions you 'could' have earned.
You don't hear me complaining about the millions I 'could' have gotten if they picked my numbers in last week's lottery.
