Ireland’s second largest ISP forced to adopt ‘three strikes’ rule

The Irish High Court has ordered the country’s second largest ISP (internet service provider) UPC to implement the ‘three strikes’ plan against its copyright infringing customers.

This follows a joint injunction from the Irish operations of Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music and Warner Music.

UPC customers illegally downloading music or movies will get two warnings before they are disconnected. A third warning will lead to court action from copyright owners.

High Court judge Brian Cregan dismissed the ISP’s three arguments. One, that policing its customers’ actions is not its responsibility. Two, this was a matter for the legislature and not the courts. Thirdly, the matter should be referred to the European Court of Justice as European law has stated that IPSs are “mere conduits.”

Justice Cregan stated there was “wholesale theft” on the UPC network and that the constitutional rights of "a whole class of persons are not just being infringed but are being destroyed.  The downloading of music for free is destroying the intellectual property rights of creative artists and should be a matter of great concern in any civilised society.”

He added, "The current generation of writers, performers and interpreters of music cannot have their livelihoods destroyed by advances in technology which allow persons to breach their constitutional rights with impunity.”

Next month, UPC and the record companies will submit their plans on how the three strikes plan will be implemented, and what options a customer has to challenge the warning notices through an impartial arbitration panel.

UPC has 12 months to set up a computerised detection system.

Cregan estimates that this will cost between €800,000 (A$1.13 million) and €940,000 (A$1.3 million). Of this, UPC will cop 80% of the cost. Record companies and rights holders will handle the remaining 20%.

The ‘three strikes’ process will cost between €200,000 (A$283,000) and €300,000 (A$424,470) a year to operate, for which the ISP will pay. The price of a customer’s challenge will be shared by the ISP and copyright holders. The judge capped the number of notifications to 2500 a month.

This is the first test of Ireland’s two-year-old laws which made ISPs more accountable to copyright holders.