Music industry targets filesharers
This follows action against 17 other distributors, three of which are currently being sued in the courts.
The Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) said €28 million had been knocked off sales in the last four years due to mass distribution of illegally uploaded music.
Speaking at a press conference, director general of IRMA Dick Doyle said the organisation had asked internet service providers (ISPs) to release the names of the individuals they had found to be abusing copyright on the internet.
“We are taking 50 more cases and have written to four internet service providers for the name of the file-sharers,” he said, adding that Eircom had 42 of the names, Esat six, Chorus one and Irish Broadband one.
“They will refuse to give the names and we will then go to court and ask them to compel the ISPs to hand over the names.”
He said he did not expect any difficulties following a High Court ruling last July compelling ISPs to hand over the names of 17 individuals.
IRMA subsequently wrote to the 16 individuals and one company. The worst offender of the 17 uploaded 3,000 songs.
“Twelve of them, including the company, settled and paid damages of €2,500 on average. They’ve cleaned up their PCs and given a court undertaking not to engage in file-sharing,” said Mr Doyle.
“We are suing three individuals who ignored our letters or who did not admit liability. Two others we failed to locate.”
He said IRMA would go to the High Court in December and begin the hearings.
At the same time, the body will seek the names of the 50 individuals being targeted in phase two of the campaign.
“The ISPs have told us it will take two-to-three weeks after the court order. We will then write to the 50 in early January, so it will be a nice post-Christmas present for them,” said Mr Doyle.
He said these 50 offenders had between them uploaded and shared 50,800 songs.
“These people have no respect for artists and writers of music.”
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