IRMA turns up heat in Pirate Bay-watch
IRMA turns up heat in Pirate Bay-watch
Record companies in Ireland have stepped up their case against torrent website The Pirate Bay, curiously just as the site prepares to go straight.
The group has approached the major telecoms companies in the country and demanded they block access to the infamous Swedish website which hosts a massive collection of "torrents", many of which feature copyrighted material.(continues below)
So far only Eircom has acquiesced, promising to block the site from the start of September. By that time a deal to buy the site and make it legitimate may well have been signed off by advertising company Global Gaming Factory X.
Regardless, the decision by Eircom is unlikely to have any real impact on illegal downloading in Ireland as The Pirate Bay is just one in a network of torrent sites that offer files to users.
IRMA has also been trying to get Irish ISPs to sign up to a 'three strikes' policy which would allow alleged downloaders of copyrighted material to be disconnected from their broadband supplier after an initial warning. Again Eircom has agreed but others have resisted so far.
