Ireland Turns Down Three Strikes

GETTING THEIR IRISH UP: The four major record groups lost an Irish high court bid to establish a controversial legal precedent that would force ISPs to temporarily cut off illegal filesharers’ connections. The process of pursuing and penalizing illegal filesharers in Ireland has been thrown into uncertainty after a failed attempt by Warner Music, Universal Music Group, Sony and EMI to legally enforce the “three strikes” rule.” It could also complicate the situation in the U.K., where the Digital Economy Act offers similar provisions to discover and warn—and potentially pull the plug on the connections of—people who illicitly access copyrighted content. The high court judgment ruled that laws enabling illegal downloaders to be disconnected from the Internet after being warned three times were not enforceable in Ireland—while noting that piracy is “destructive” to the creative industries. (10/18a)