The Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) are demanding that Irish ISPs block The Pirate Bay ( www.thepiratebay.org ) - the first step to Internet censhorship in Ireland.

Below is a link to a copy of a letter (presumed) mistakenly sent to Blacknight, a web hosting service provider based in Carlow, by legal representatives of IRMA requesting Blacknight to "work with the record industry to end the abuse of the Internet by peer to peer infringers" and to implement a "graduated response" policy similar to the one Eircom is operating since last month.

http://blog.blacknight.com/images/irmaletter.pdf

Presumably, this same letter was also sent to members of ISPAI (Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland).

Digital Rights Ireland (DRI) have suggested following plan of action to campaign against the results IRMA are seeking:

• Contact your ISP - mark your email for the attention of their regulatory department - and let them know what you think. Contact emails for most ISPs are on the ISPAI website.
• Subscribe to the Blackout Ireland blog and join the Digital Rights forum on Boards.ie.
• Having done that, let the Minister for Communications - Eamon Ryan - know the damage that this is likely to cause. Don’t just rely on the civil rights arguments - business impact is more likely to get attention. Point out that if ISPs are forced to become the (unpaid!) copyright cops of the music industry, it will drive up their costs and set a dangerous precedent for other Irish internet businesses.

Social networking sites are also participating in the Blackout Ireland campaigns. The Facebook Blackout Ireland group can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53586632674

For more information on this topic, visit www.blackoutireland.com.

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