An Ex-Blog – Comments Are Closed

Dear Sir/ Madam,

I am writing to you in relation to recent reports that you have written to Irish ISP’s requesting that they block websites that you deem to be responsible for illegal file sharing, or face court action for failing to do so.

In the public interest, I would appreciate it if you could answer the following questions for me:

• Why does IRMA believe that it has the right to force companies independent of IRMA to censor the Internet?
• Would it not be better for IRMA, and by extension those that it purports to represent, to educate the general public regarding the legalities of file sharing, rather than blocking the parts of the Internet it does not agree with?
• How will IRMA compile the list of websites that it wishes to see blocked?
• What criteria will be used to judge if a site is responsible for illegal file sharing?
• Will IRMA require that all search engine results for search terms such as “illegal file sharing”, “p2p”, “bittorrent”, etc also be blocked?
• Is IRMA aware that circumventing an ISP block is as simple as using a proxy server? Therefore, will IRMA also require ISP’s to block access to proxy servers?
• Is IRMA aware of how the Bittorrent protocol works, and that .torrent files do not contain any copyrighted material?
• Do IRMA believe that this action will achieve any other purpose then to highlight the fact that this material is available online and severely harm IRMA’s reputation?

I would appreciate a reply at your earliest convenience, and please note that I intend to publish your reply online.

Yours faithfully,
Paul McCarthy.

Lets see if I get a response.

Update

As per James’ comment I have also emailed Eamon Ryan, Minister for Communications. Below is a copy of the email I sent.

Dear Minister,

Please find enclosed a copy of an email I have sent to IRMA in relation to their request that Irish ISP’s censor the Internet on IRMA’s behalf.

As the Minister for Communications, I would appreciate it if you could make a response in relation to this situation.

I would also ask you to respond to the following questions:

1. Do you believe that IRMA should be allowed to dictate what websites are available to the Irish public despite the fact that they are a commercial enterprise and are using Eircom’s decision to settle with the music labels to further their own commercial aims to the detriment of the Irish public?
2. As the Minister for Communications, do you feel that IRMA’s attempts to censor the Internet to further their own commercial objectives reflects well on this country on the international stage?
3. If IRMA is allowed to pursue this course of action, will the Irish Government stand by and allow an unelected corporate entity to decide on issues regarding free and ready access to the Internet for Irish citizens?
4. Is the Minister aware that while the first site targeted by IRMA (thepiratebay.org) is known to facilitate illegal file sharing, that the site itself does not contain, host or provide any copyrighted material?
5. Is the Minister concerned that IRMA are deciding on which sites to block without any oversight?

While I do not condone illegal file sharing, I do firmly believe that no commercial entity should be given a carte blanche to censor what they perceive to be a unfair competition.

If IRMA are allowed to continue in this action, then it cannot be long before other companies will use the same methods to deny the Irish Internet community access to their competitors websites.

Yours faithfully,
Paul McCarthy

Tags: censorship, eircom, irma

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 04:14 and is filed under Communications, Internet, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.