AfterDawn: News

Eircom will block access to The Pirate Bay

The Irish ISP Eircom will begin blocking traffic to the public torrent tracker The Pirate Bay on September 1st, doing what many other Irish ISPs have refused to.

Thanks to a settlement with the Big 4 record labels in January, Eircom already uses a three-strikes law for pirates who are repeat offenders. The deal also had a clause that stated access must be cut off to the Pirate Bay if requested.



Just this week, the ISP UPC said it would not comply with the label's request to block traffic to the Pirate Bay. “Should the rights holders proceed with their threat of legal action if UPC fails to block access to Pirate Bay, UPC has every intention of vigorously defending its position in court,” added a company spokesperson, via The Irish Times.

Justice Peter Charleton of the High Court issued the blocking order in July, added that the music being "stolen" is “by hard-working artists, some of whom indeed may be very wealthy, but some of whom may be trying to do their very best to making a living out of what they love”.

BT Ireland, another ISP, also refused to block the traffic, claiming "there is no legal basis for such a request”.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 21 Aug 2009 0:50

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• 15 comments

• KillerBug

  There is no way to block the pirate bay without blocking the pirate bay servers...this just makes is a tiny bit harder to access the pirate bay.

  21.8.2009 03:19 #1

• Mez

  They can block the trackers. If PB has replicated their trackers on other sites that will not stop anything.
  
  Blocking the web site is worthless since there are sooo many ways to get around that one.
  
  They were short sited comming down on PB so hard. They have lost all their bargining chips.

  21.8.2009 07:41 #2

• nintenut

  Hopefully the subscribers jump ship.

  21.8.2009 08:44 #3

• joe777

  If this goes through then they will use it as a precedent to block every single torrent site on the planet that has links to copyrighted material. Mark my words folks this battle is coming to boiling point and if we dont do our own lobbying to governments then we are doomed to a life of darknets and running from the gatekeepers for ever. All our rights are being washed away but the majority of people are wearing it. As frankie boyle would say "we are going to take all your freedom away, but dont worry look at the shinny shinny"

  21.8.2009 11:08 #4

• cart0181

  Originally posted by nintenut: Hopefully the subscribers jump ship.I think that's what Eircom, or at least the Big 4 were hoping. Get it? "jump ship" lol

  21.8.2009 12:04 #5

• zenno

  there is no legal basis for this who do they think they are trying to get every irish isp to block sites. i'm sick of these idiots. fair play to upc ntl/chorus they should give emi, universal, warner music, and sony bmg a good kick up the arse and tell them where to go if they try this again. ireland is not communist china.

  21.8.2009 12:57 #6

• pphoenix

  don't ppl in china get blocked from many many web sites?
  
  Doesn't the USA and UK continually bleat on about freedom of speech & no oppression is tolerated?
  
  how do ppl in China get around the great firewall, a proxy?

  21.8.2009 13:53 #7

• varnull

  Plenty of public domain legal content on the bay.. this is open to legal freedom of access to information challenge under european laws.
  

  
  
  Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work.
  I would rather you hate me for who I am than love me for what I am not.
  “It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.” - Bruce Schneier

  21.8.2009 14:00 #8

• zenno

  Originally posted by pphoenix: don't ppl in china get blocked from many many web sites?
  
  Doesn't the USA and UK continually bleat on about freedom of speech & no oppression is tolerated?
  
  how do ppl in China get around the great firewall, a proxy?if they start blocking one website then it's more than likely that eventually they will start to block more and more. eircom i do know were paid to block the piratebay and spy on their customers but who in their right mind would use eircom as they have being ripping off it's customers for decades. it's important for irish isp's to hold their ground as the music industries have no legal basis to force them to block sites.

  21.8.2009 14:18 #9

• DXR88

  ISP's blocking site's would slow down there already slow network. ISPs are getting the shitty end of the stick why should they stick there neck out for the Mafia when there is no benefit of doing so.

  21.8.2009 16:02 #10

• KillerBug

  ISPs are businesses, not governments. This is good, becuase governments are monopolies that make rules that everyone is forced to folow. The only way to escape these rules is to move to another country(a very expensive, disfficult task). Businesses make rules that their customers are forced to follow, but customers can change the businesses they use with just a couple of phone calls. This is why tyrany in government is unavoidable, but tyrany in business is not. Let these crummy providers go out of business, no one will miss them.

  22.8.2009 06:15 #11

• etkasoe

  Originally posted by KillerBug: ISPs are businesses, not governments. This is good, becuase governments are monopolies that make rules that everyone is forced to folow. The only way to escape these rules is to move to another country(a very expensive, disfficult task). Businesses make rules that their customers are forced to follow, but customers can change the businesses they use with just a couple of phone calls. This is why tyrany in government is unavoidable, but tyrany in business is not. Let these crummy providers go out of business, no one will miss them.Eircom was actually owned by the Irish Government up until a few years ago.
  Having worked there for a short time I can tell you that the management of the company are so far out of touch with whats goin on in the word its frightening.
  
  They still think its 1986.

  22.8.2009 09:59 #12

• ZippyDSM

  to little to late since PB is dead....

  22.8.2009 11:50 #13

• thepohl

  *inappropriate comment removed*

  22.8.2009 23:50 #14

• Mez

  thepohl, you got that right!
  
  I can share my experience with Comcast one of the largest IPSs in the world. They are a business and behave like one. This is way different than their rhetoric. They were the pioneers in anti-P2P technology. They were so effective that it cut into their profits. Then they lightened it up. They almost worked out a deal with the media mafia to send out letters. The MM was going to pay for the expenses. The deal fell through over the concept to expenses. The MMs concept of expenses was the paper and postage and nothing for the lost business. Comcast has come to realize a very large segment of their profits come from users that will leave if they are cut off from P2P. They need the pirates to stay in business. They talk tough but know which side of their bread is buttered.
  
  The media mafia will succeed in killing P2P as we now know it within the next few years where ever you live. So get it while you can. I do believe the MM will never eliminate file sharing. There will always be something. I am sure there will be some nasty laws in place before Obama leaves office.

  24.8.2009 08:30 #15