Rich Fiscus
20 Dec 2011 2:01
The Irish Data Protection Commissioner has shot down an agreement between Eircom and the major record labels to disconnect customers from the Internet based on repeated allegations of copyright infringement.
The agreement was made to settle a lawsuit from the IRMA (Irish Recorded Music Association), who attempted to force the Irish ISP to install monitoring software to detect copyrighted content being sent across its network. Eircom instead agreed to disconnect users after three allegations from the labels.
As in other parts of the world, the labels' plan involved relaying exclusively on IP addresses. Their investigators would identify an allegedly infringing file, determine the source IP address, and forward that information on to Eircom. Eircom would then send out a warning letter for the first two "offenses" and disconnect the account after the third.
Earlier this year the Data Protection Commissioner began investigating the ISP over the agreement. Yesterday he ordered a halt to it, giving Eircom 21 days to respond.
This comes less than a month after the EU Court Of Justice ruled that ISPs may not be required to disconnect users for copyright infringement because it would constitute a violation of their right to "receive or impart data."