Blackout Ireland

IRMA goes after UPC (Chorus NTL) and BT

After three-strikes was voted against numerous times in the EU parliament and was thoroughly rejected as unconstitutional and infringing on human rights in France, IRMA still continue on their path to damage Ireland’s reputation as a country where freedom of speech is respected.

Blackout Ireland would yet again like to stress that IRMA’s plans will not remedy the current situation of copyright infringement on the Internet. They will affect innocent internet users; have a chilling effect of freedom of speech; introduce the concept of censorship to the Irish internet, ready to be used again by other industries and, of course, have no influence on pirates who will stay one step ahead in this cat-and-mouse game.

Blackout Ireland urges UPC and BT Ireland to stand their ground and fight for the rights of their valued customers. Irish ISPs must unite in their defence against IRMA. Internet providers must remain as impartial conduits of data. IRMA must respect due legal process instead of trying to make themselves judge, jury and executioners with no respect for basic human rights such as being considered innocent until proven guilty.

Copyright law is important “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts”. When organisations like IRMA try to remove its enforcement from the courts, they weaken it. They detach it from its cause and abuse it to slow the progress of technology. It was never meant to be used to censor.

IRMA’s approach will cause significant damage without actually solving anything. A little more thought must go into a solution that protects freedom of speech, the rights of artists and technological progress.

ISPAI’s position statement

The Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland (ISPAI) released a strong position statement today, slamming IRMA’s threat of legal action as “spurious” and stating that their actions could “impact on user privacy, damage the development of new internet services and hurt Ireland’s standing as an e-commerce hub”.

This statement comes one month after a letter was sent from IRMA to the ISPs, threatening legal action if they failed to agree to the same terms as those reached with Eircom.

Crucially, the ISPAI assert that they will continue to co-operate within “existing legal parameters” and pursue offenders “through the courts”, a direct response to IRMA’s demands that they prosecute people outside of the courts.

They also assert the importance of user privacy in legislation, adding that:

“ISPs can not be expected to ignore [this legislation] merely because it does not suit another private party. To do so would breach the privacy of our users as well as having serious implications for the continued location of international e-business in this country and the jobs these generate.”

However, Eircom have already stated that, under the terms of the settlement, they would protect user privacy by not revealing user details to the music companies. Therefore, advocating user privacy does not necessarily mean they would oppose the settlement.

What is missing is any actual indication of how the ISPAI will proceed.

And while we welcome their position on following due legal process, we have still to learn to what extent the ISPs will fight this.

Clarity

This is not a geek issue, nor a mere legal issue, and it’s certainly not about downloading free music.

This is a civil liberties issue.

And it’s an issue that threatens to hurt Irish businesses and undermine Ireland’s reputation abroad.

Problem is, the majority of us take the internet for granted. We plan our lives and incomes around it, without really questioning just how fragile a service it might be. As internet users, we can’t afford to be caught napping.

New Zealanders were astonished when the draconian “Guilt upon accusation” laws were announced. They couldn’t believe that internet users could be cut off without any evidence, or rights to appeal. The French now face a similar threat. This is happening internationally and it is not going away soon.

The Irish blackout protest started early. So far, only Eircom have agreed to comply with IRMA. The other ISPs have yet to announce their position. No draconian laws have been introduced, but the protection of ISPs is under threat.

If ISPs adopt a “three strikes” policy, they remove their customers’ right to a fair trial.

If ISPs are obliged to install a means of monitoring or filtering traffic, we the consumers will have to pay more for internet access.

If ISPs are forced to filter traffic, their legal protection as data carriers could be compromised.

It’s frankly outrageous that private companies would threaten our consumer rights, and bully our service providers in this way.

They cannot be allowed to dictate what sites we can visit. If we give even one company that power, we open the door for others to follow.

We need to send out a clear message that the ISPs must stand firm and fight this.

Sunday Update

We’re now halfway through our Blackout Week protest to raise awareness about the recent deal between Eircom and the record labels, and its implications for Irish internet users.

We have asked the Minister for Communications, Eamon Ryan, to examine the recent settlement and look at ways to strengthen legislation to protect both ISPs and internet consumers.

The protest has been covered in The Irish Times and Ars Techica, and we have received the support of the Committee to Protect Bloggers.

Danny O’Brien from the Electric Frontier Foundation (EFF) makes a strong case for why the other ISPs should stand with their customers, and, in an article in the Irish Times, lambasts IRMA for their short-sighted thuggery.

Blackout Ireland spokesperson Aubrey Robinson has appeared on the RedFM’s Victor Barry Show,TodayFM’s The Last Word, iRadio and PhoenixFM.

An official Blackout Ireland Facebook page has been setup here. In Twitter, you can follow @BlackoutIreland.

Several questions are being asked in relation to the protest, for example:

In protesting what the record companies are doing, are you not encouraging piracy?

We have been clear from the outset that we do not condone piracy and believe that music labels have every right to be fairly compensated.

What we oppose is the music industry’s efforts to police the internet and have users disconnected extrajudicially. We believe these actions must be opposed so that the industry is forced to look at alternative ways to make an income.

There is no way to eliminate piracy completely. The solution for the record companies is to minimise it by offering affordable alternatives that make sense to how people use the internet.

New technologies such as peer-to-peer file sharing are here to stay. These technologies will continue to evolve and music distribution will become increasingly hard to control. The music industry cannot possibly maintain the degree of control they once had over distribution, and must instead look at ways to license music in a similar way to how they license to radio stations.

The success of iTunes proves that people are willing to pay for music so long as it’s affordable and works intuitively with how they consume media.
Our task is to successfully oppose the music industry’s current line of attack and force them to look at alternatives.

For more on alternatives, visit EFF and the Green Party Free Alliance.

Surely the ISPs need to monitor their traffic for serious offences like child pornography and report it to the authorities?

Our position is that internet policing should be done by police authorities following due process and that sentencing must happen in the courts.

ISPs do not have the means to monitor or filter data. Setting up this technology would be expensive and would lead to a considerable increase in charges for internet consumers.

Moreover, if the ISPs become legally responsible for monitoring the data, they would become responsible for any criminal activity that took place on their network. This would force them to remove anything that could potentially lead to a lawsuit, resulting in a highly filtered and restricted internet.

We feel strongly that ISPs must remain protected as mere conduits of data, and would oppose any change to that in legislation.

More questions relating to Blackout Ireland are covered here.

Moving Forward

Irish record companies want to appoint themselves as judge, jury and executioners of the Internet.

They want to be able to cut internet users off based on their own dubious evidence (which has been shown on many occasions to be faulty [PDF]). They want to bypass the judicial system by considering people guilty upon accusation. They want to punish file-sharers by cutting them off the Internet completely, a disproportionate and draconian punishment. It goes without saying that pirates will be able to fly under the radar of the faulty detection systems and that many innocent eircom users will face disconnection from the Internet, especially those 250,000 with vulnerable routers.

Musicians do not get money by having people disconnected from the internet.

As I’ve stated before, they want to block Irish Internet users’ access to websites that have never been found to be illegal in any Irish court. If they are permitted to block legal websites, what is to stop any other disgruntled industry from doing the same? This precedent is opening the door to any company who wants to block something they don’t agree with from the web. The Internet is the best thing to happen to free speech since the printing press. It would be a shame for it to be censored over a problem that has other, better solutions. Pirates will, of course, always be able to bypass the blocks with ease.

Musicians do not get money by having websites blocked.

IRMA’s proposals will not affect pirates.

We need to work with IRMA and other players in the Irish music industry to build towards a viable solution that allows musicians to be paid whilst allowing music fans to listen to music with whatever technology they want. This rewards creativity and fosters technological innovation instead of fighting it.

Wikipedia

When radio was first introduced in the 1930’s many predicted the end of records. Radio was a free medium for the public to hear music for which they would normally pay. While some companies saw radio as a new avenue for promotion, others feared it would cut into profits from record sales and live performances. Many companies had their major stars sign agreements that they would not appear on radio.

Indeed, the music recording industry had a severe drop in profits after the introduction of the radio. For a while, it appeared as though radio was a definite threat to the record industry. Radio ownership grew from 2 out of 5 homes in 1931 to 4 out of 5 homes in 1938. Meanwhile record sales fell from $75 million in 1929 to $26 million in 1938 (with a low point of $5 million in 1933). Although it should be noted that the economics of the situation were also affected by the fact this took place during the Great Depression.

The copyright owners of these songs were concerned that they would see no gain from the popularity of radio and the ‘free’ music it provided. Luckily, everything they needed to make this new medium work for them already existed in previous copyright law. The copyright holder for a song had control over all public performances ‘for profit.’ The problem now was proving that the radio industry, which was just figuring out for itself how to make money from advertising and currently offered free music to anyone with a receiver, was making a profit from the songs.

The test case was against Bamberger Department Store in Newark, New Jersey in 1922. The store was broadcasting music throughout its store on the radio station WOR. No advertisements were heard, except for at the beginning of the broadcast which announced “L. Bamberger and Co., One of America’s Great Stores, Newark, New Jersey.” It was determined through this and previous cases (such as the lawsuit against Shanley’s Restaurant) that Bamberger was using the songs for commercial gain, thus making it a public performance for profit, which meant the copyright owners were due payment.

With this ruling the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) began collecting licensing fees from radio stations in 1923. The beginning sum was $230 for all music protected under ASCAP, but for larger stations the price soon ballooned up to $5,000. Edward Samuel’s reports in his book The Illustrated Story of Copyright that “radio and TV licensing represents the single greatest source of revenue for ASCAP and its composers […] and average member of ASCAP gets about $150-$200 per work per year, or about $5,000-$6,000 for all of a member’s compositions.

I see many similarities between the situation of music piracy on the Internet and early broadcast radio. We are seeing a drop in record sales along with an increase in file sharing. We are also in the midst of a global recession. It would be wise to act upon the lessons learnt from this episode in music history.

The EFF and European Green Party Alliance have proposed solutions that would allow Internet users to pay license fees similar to those paid by radio stations in order to make sure artists are fairly rewarded for their hard work. It would put an end to the legal battles record labels have had to fight to protect their copyrights, giving them more time and money to focus on the important thing. Music.

-Charles Julienne

Press Release - Blackout Ireland call for protest

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Aubrey Robinson
Tel: 087 054 4985
Email: pr@blackoutireland.com

Blackout Ireland call for protest over threat of internet censorship by IRMA
Inspired by New Zealand’s recent internet blackout campaign, Blackout Ireland are organising a week-long protest, starting Thursday the 5th of March, in response to the recent court settlement deal between Eircom and the four major record labels.

Blackout Ireland believe that this deal could set a dangerous precedent of  internet censorship by private companies, as it enables the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) to ban someone’s internet access without due legal process.

Under the terms of the settlement, Eircom will disconnect users suspected of illegally downloading music based on evidence supplied by IRMA and without the need for a court of law. IRMA have also revealed that they will seek to block websites such as the Pirate Bay that they suspect of providing illegal downloads. Eircom will not oppose any such action under the new deal.

According to Blackout Ireland representative, Aubrey Robinson:  “These new policies have serious implications for internet freedom, as they open the door for other private companies to obtain similar powers in dictating, without due process, who or what is permissible online”.

IRMA have sent letters to the other Irish ISPs threatening legal action if they do not agree to similar terms, a move which has prompted the week-long protest.

As part of Blackout Week, Irish internet users are being asked to blacken out their profile images on social media sites, and to email their internet service provider to voice their oppositon to the move.

Blackout Ireland are a group of Irish Internet users who are concerned by the prospect of Internet censorship in Ireland. They do not condone piracy, and believe that music companies and individuals have every right to protect their copyright material through legal means.

They stress the following points:

•    Censorship is not the solution. The music industry must find alternative means of charging for music downloads that benefit both artists and consumers without threatening internet neutrality.

•    ISPs need to remain as impartial conduits of data and must not be required to monitor or filter internet traffic.

•    Banning someone from the internet is totally disproportionate in this context. Such a penalty should only be imposed by a judge in a court of law.

•    The technology being used to track offenders is not sufficiently accurate and will lead to people being falsely accused.

•    Blocking sites and disconnecting users will not stop piracy, as Illegal downloaders will always be able to circumvent these restrictions.

More information: http://www.blackoutireland.com