Today is Blackout Thursday.
Today is the day that I ask you for a favour. I would like you to contact your ISP, Eircom, IRMA, your TD or the Minister for Communications and ask them the difficult questions regarding IRMA’s attempts to censor the Internet.
Thanks.
The Internet has always been about Freedom of Information. From it’s very foundation, the Internet was designed to ensure that the flow of information could not be stopped.
Now IRMA want to take away that Freedom.
They may couch it terms of preventing illegal file sharing, of protecting copyright, of being defenders of the law, but make no mistake, they are attempting to censor the Internet.
Whether you download movies/ music illegally from the Internet is not the issue here. The issue is that a commercial entity are forcing the country’s largest ISP to prevent access to a website. (The Pirate Bay)
It may just be one website, but there will be more. All of these websites will be blocked on the say-so of IRMA. A lobby that is answerable to no-one and who will compile the block list with no oversight.
We’ve long lived with the fear that Big Brother is watching us. We have CCTV in our towns and cities, we have biometric passports, ISP’s that are required to keep logs of what we do and where we go on the Internet. In most cases our fears have stemmed from a fear of an omnipresent government, but now we’re facing an attack on our freedoms from the commercial sector.
Our freedoms are being attacked at every turn, and for the most part we’ve accepted it and continued with our lives, but now we’ve reached a point where we have to make a stand.
It’s time that we make IRMA know that their actions are not acceptable.
I ask you to stand up for your rights and your freedoms.
Write to your ISP, your TD (pdf file), the Minister for Communications. Let them know that censorship is not a solution to IRMA’s problems with copyright infringement. Let them know that IRMA’s actions threaten Ireland’s reputation as a Free Society.
When you have sent your letter, visit Blackout Ireland. Let them know that you support their stand. Let them know that you will stand with them as they fight against IRMA.