Ireland becomes first to terminate accounts of illegal file sharers

According to a recent report Ireland has become the first country in the world to start disconnecting broadband users that are found to be illegally file sharing.

For many months the topic of disconnecting broadband users who are suspected of illegal file sharing has caused a great deal of controversy in the UK and in other parts of the world. A fierce battle has ensued amongst the entertainment industry and various supporting industry and former government officials, who wanted to take disconnection action against those found to be illegally file sharing, and Internet Providers and campaigners expressing their concerns over this action.

Despite lack of support from many groups over this matter a number of measures that ISPs had to take were outlined in the Digital Economy Bill, which was rushed into law prior to the general election and the dissolution of parliament. It has now been announced that Ireland has become the first country to taken termination action against customers found to be involved in illegal file sharing.

At present Ireland is taking part in a pilot scheme with regards to terminating the accounts of illegal file sharers. The scheme will be reviewed after a six month period, and the decision to launch it in the first place was made after Ireland’s leading broadband provider, Eircom, which has around half a million customers, was involved in a case last year where it had to settle out of court with the Irish Recorded Music Association.

Part of the deal at that time was that Eircom would start taking action against its own customers who were found to be illegally file sharing, and around fifty IP addresses a week will be processed by the company whilst measures are put into place to manage the workload more effectively. Ultimately thousands of accounts could be targeted as a result of the measure, according to reports.

Source – Bitter Wallet