Irish music association takes steps to block pirate sites

Founders of controversial peer-to-peer (P2P) torrent website The Pirate Bay may slowly but surely be proving that even alleged content pirates have a leg to stand on against the Swedish authorities. However, that’s not putting off the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) from taking a similar approach to tackling unauthorised music downloading.

According to a report in Ireland’s Sunday Business Post, the IRMA is threatening internet service providers (ISPs) with legal action if they fail to block access to torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay.

A deal has already been struck with Eire’s largest ISP, Eircom, as it agrees to block access to any website providing the means to downloading copyright music files. To make the blocking demands absolutely clear, the IRMA is in the process of compiling a list of offending websites – thanks to its current notoriety, The Pirate Bay will feature at the top of this list. Once an offending site has been identified, the IRMA has stated it will apply for a court order requiring all Irish ISPs to block public access to it.

If this procedure successfully goes ahead, the Sunday Business Post said Ireland would be the “first European country to completely block access to hundreds of file-sharing websites.”

Justifying its plans for tackling music piracy, a spokesperson for the IRMA commented: “…music piracy is a five billion dollar worldwide problem. It rears its ugly head everywhere, often completely ruining the livelihoods of performers and people working in the music industry.

"Ireland, with its rich musical tradition, is also a lucrative market for piracy, with music industry losses running to 3.8 million euros (£3.3m) annually, this figure increases to €63.5 million when pirated software and videos are included.”

Earlier in the year, the IRMA began taking steps towards banning music pirates by distributing offending pirates’ IP addresses onto Eircom. However, banning offending websites is, as the current Sweden vs The Pirate Bay case proves, a complicated tactic.

This year, music piracy has been a hot topic across the globe. In the UK, recent suggestions for combating the illegal downloading of multimedia content have included the implementation of a compulsory broadband tax as well as more expensive broadband package choices.

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