David Higgins

Yesterday Ireland’s largest ISP Eircom announced that they would start blocking the website The Pirate Bay from September.

Pirate Bay, the file sharing site is to be restricted on Eircom only and UPC (my faster and more reliable ISP) is defiantly opposing attempts by Music organizations to restrict the site on its network.

In a statement UPC said that there was no obligation on them under Irish law to restrict access to any website and that they would fight in court to protect their position. UPC and BT are due before the courts soon to adopt a 3 strikes rule on peer 2 peer downloads.

This move by Eircom surprises me as The Pirate Bay is due to become a legitimate content site in the coming weeks. I understand that this may not go ahead however what if it does, will Eircom lift its ban?

Also what about other sites.

Mininova is another prominent file-sharing site and to only ban The Pirate Bay would just move users to alternate sites such as this one. Thousands of torrent tracker sites exist and if one is shut down or blocked, another one will just take its place.

Then there’s the general file sites. Places such as Rapidshare and Megaupload are used for illegal file-sharing however more than half of its use is for legitimate and legal files such as free software and documents. Sites like these would be used regularly by businesses and law abiding citizens. Will these sites be blocked too???

And then there’s YouTube! The world’s largest video sharing site also contains millions of songs. Whether in music video format or just the song with a slideshow or album cover the selection is just as wide as on Pirate Bay or Limewire. Simple websites and desktop software can take the YouTube video, extract the audio and then convert it to MP3 format. This is just as effective, if a little more complex however it just shows that file-sharing is unstoppable and to challenge it is a waste of time.

Will the ban on Pirate Bay stop illegal file-sharing? NO!

Well, it’s no secret that everyone in the music business hates pirates, Coldplay is no exception. Their new music video “Strawberry String” has a brief reference to pirates but it sends out a subliminal message to the file-sharing community: We don’t like you!

I can sympathise with the concerns of small artists who are struggling with the loss in CD sales and who are hit with the recession. Last year I bought the debut album by the Coronas, they’re doing well now and I’m proud to have supported them financially when they needed it. The same goes for Apollos Thebe. They’re a band whom I know very well and I had no problem paying a fiver for their debut EP.

However I refuse to support already wealthy artists like Coldplay. This September I’m going to their concert in the Phoenix Park, Dublin. This cost me €76!!! This is more than a lifetime contribution to the band and so I have no problem in owning ripped copies of their 4 albums.

It’s the same for U2. I’ve spent €60 on a ticket for their 360?tour in Croke Park only to find out that it’s actually a 270? tour . Again I refuse point blank to pay for any U2 album because they are already rich. U2 don’t pay all their taxes in Ireland however it is good to see them investing money into young Irish musicians. Still, I have no problem in downloading their entire discography.