Guilt upon Accusation and Internet freedom in Ireland

There is no right to Internet access in Ireland in a personal or business capacity.

Eircom is an Internet Service Provider (ISP) with a majority market share has agreed to

1. censor the Internet and
2. disconnect Eircom subscribers after "three strikes"

on the accusation of a third party IRMA, the Irish Recorded Music Association.

What is particularly sinister about the Eircom/IRMA settlement is that it is based on

"Guilt upon Accusation" - no proof is necessary nor is it possible to appeal.

It is an agreement between two companies effectively censoring the Internet in Ireland. The "three strikes" policy has been successfully defeated as being too harsh in EU jurisdictions such as Germany.

In response to this we taking the simple gesture of backing-out our avatars on social network sites such as twitter, identica, facebook and linkedin for one week. A similar campaign in New Zealand successfully prevented the implementation of this law in their country. We are the only free country in the world with such an arrangement.

We in Ireland need to play our full part on the Internet if it our economy is to recover quickly and thrive into the future. Setting up a Great Firewall of China in Ireland does nothing to deliver a knowledge economy or to promote our personal or business freedoms.

Wilt thou destroy Ireland's place on the Internet for lack of the ten?

• Paul McCarthy
• Michele Neylon
• Justin Mason
• Damien Mulley
• Aubrey Robinson
• John Collins
• Uldis Bojars
• Charles Julienne
• Adrian Weckler
• Digital Rights Ireland

Please support blackoutireland.com. An essential freedom is being subverted here.