Ireland might be the first nation state to be brought down by Big Content for not doing what it's told over file sharing.
The music industry is looking to sue the cash-strapped Irish government for refusing to bring in a SOPA style law which blocks websites.
Big Content wants sites it names to be blocked without the bothersome need for going to trial. Since the Irish will not do what they're told, they are clearly pirates and must face the music.
According to Activepolitic, the background to this case lies in the October 2010 judgement of Charleton J. in EMI v. UPC where he held that Irish law did not permit an order to be made against an ISP requiring blocking of websites.
The music industry responded that since the State had not enacted the law it could be held responsible for all the file sharing that goes on in Ireland. Since that will be worth several trillion to the industry, by the time the lawyers have added lots of zeros, it means that the Irish government could be the first nation state to be sued into insolvency by Big Content.
To be fair, the Irish have said that they will have a "statutory instrument" to allow the blocking of websites in accordance to EU laws in the next few days.
But it doesn't seem that the ability to block a website is what Big Content is after. The Irish Data Protection Commissioner has already ruled against Eircom's three strikes system, and while any "statutory instrument" will allow for blocking a website it will not allow a SOPA system where the music industry tells an ISP to shut down a site without any evidence.
It looks like the music industry will use the European law principle, first seen in Italy, where damages are possible against a state for failure to transpose an EU directive.
It might be tricky to get a conviction. Big Content would have to prove that blocking websites stops piracy and demonstrate that the Irish government didn't bring in a law fast enough.
In the unlikely event that Big Content wins, and the damages were on a normal file sharing level, and Ireland remains as broke as it is, then Big Content would be in the interesting situation of actually owning a small country.
We guess it could try selling it to repay the debt - China might be interested.
They have tried this tactic before with other countries and FAILED!
"Music industry sues Irish government"
Bravo to the Irish Government!
Screw Big Content utter vultures! Never enough!
May God damn the real beasts of the Music Industry.
We can start with the admittedly labyrinthine narrative on
http://seanonuallain.com/id2.html
To summarize; musicians start to notice that their song copyright registrations are altered when they attempt to repatriate them from Britain and the USA to the nascent Irish music "rights" organization (IMRO). Companies close to the government suddenly "own" part of the songs. The musicians check further, and notice that they are credited with writing songs that don't exist, often spelled in Gaelic with a letter missing.
They get the police involved; one of the police is made a job offer he can't refuse, but parliamentary questions keep the investigation going. It is possible that the government simply wanted to find out what we knew.
Then someone in IMRO's London counterpart panics and - lo and behold! - it is revealed that Shay Hennessy, chair of IMRO, HAD STOLEN HUNDREDS OF COPYRIGHTS AND WAS USING IMRO TO PERPETUATE THE THEFT. Quis cutodies cutodiet? AS it happens, the police investigation was aborted with a leak to the papers
http://www.politics.ie/forum/current-affairs/36672-corruption-dpps-office.html
Hennessy was the main advisor on the copyright act that has caused this snafu;
http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/miscellaneous-retail-retail-stores-not/4602230-1.html
It is important to remember that, when referring to Ireland 1997-2011, we are not talking about a modern democracy; it is a third world country, with the prime minister paying a fortune of taxpayers' money to promote the musical and other "artistic" careers of his daughters and their partners, including the horrible "PS I love you".
U2, among many others, took advantage of the artists destroyers' exemption, which allowed them trade with dissolved companies and steal at will from far better musicians than them.
We can start with the admittedly labyrinthine narrative on
http://seanonuallain.com/id2.html
To summarize; musicians start to notice that their song copyright registrations are altered when they attempt to repatriate them from Britain and the USA to the nascent Irish music "rights" organization (IMRO). Companies close to the government suddenly "own" part of the songs. The musicians check further, and notice that they are credited with writing songs that don't exist, often spelled in Gaelic with a letter missing.
They get the police involved; one of the police is made a job offer he can't refuse, but parliamentary questions keep the investigation going. It is possible that the government simply wanted to find out what we knew.
Then someone in IMRO's London counterpart panics and - lo and behold! - it is revealed that Shay Hennessy, chair of IMRO, HAD STOLEN HUNDREDS OF COPYRIGHTS AND WAS USING IMRO TO PERPETUATE THE THEFT. Quis cutodies cutodiet? AS it happens, the police investigation was aborted with a leak to the papers
http://www.politics.ie/forum/current-affairs/36672-corruption-dpps-office.html
Hennessy was the main advisor on the copyright act that has caused this snafu;
http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/miscellaneous-retail-retail-stores-not/4602230-1.html
It is important to remember that, when referring to Ireland 1997-2011, we are not talking about a modern democracy; it is a third world country, with the prime minister paying a fortune of taxpayers' money to promote the musical and other "artistic" careers of his daughters and their partners, including the horrible "PS I love you".
U2, among many others, took advantage of the artists destroyers' exemption, which allowed them trade with dissolved companies and steal at will from far better musicians than them.