The Irish High Court recently upheld the legality of the settlement between various record companies (the Irish entities of EMI Records, Sony, Universal Music, Warner Music) and Eircom Limited regarding a ‘three strikes and you’re out policy’ for Eircom customers who illegally download and share copyright-protected material.  A three month pilot programme commencing this policy began on 24 May 2010, making Ireland the first country in the world to implement such a procedure.

It was agreed that the record companies (based on information provided to them by specialist companies) will inform Eircom if a particular computer has been involved in illegal file sharing of copyright material.  Eircom, the internet service provider, will then apply its three strikes policy as follows:

• Eircom will inform its customer that they have been detected infringing copyright;
• On a second detection, Eircom will write to its customer warning them that unless the infringement ceases they will be disconnected from general internet service; and
• When a third infringement notification is received, Eircom must review all the evidence of the alleged copyright infringement, including representations from its customers. Extenuating circumstances (such as the necessity of internet access for medical services) should be considered by Eircom.  If there are no extenuating circumstances, a termination notice is then issued to the customer giving 14 days before the internet service will be removed, initially for 7 days and then for a year if a further infringement occurs.

Eircom will also engage in an education and awareness campaign for its internet customers concerning abuse of peer-to-peer software, securing broadband installation in the home and how copyright infringement might be detected by the main householder.

As the graduated response policy has only been introduced into Ireland very recently, the full repercussions are yet to be felt.  Some commentators have expressed concern over the proportionality of the sanction against internet users, particularly in circumstances where the software monitoring the illegal downloading and identifying the IP addresses is not infallible and where the appeal process against the removal of the internet service is arguably minimal. 

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