http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-1313398,00.html

American firm to crack down on Irish music downloads

Enda Leahy
AN anti-piracy firm in America has been hired to gather evidence against Irish users of online music-sharing networks so they can be prosecuted.

Dick Doyle, the director general of the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) that hired the firm, said he already has evidence against some of the estimated 250,000 Irish users of peer-to-peer file-sharing networks such as Kazaa and eDonkey.

Those caught in possession of illegally downloaded music can be fined ¤1,900 per song or face total fines of up to ¤127,000 and five years’ imprisonment.

IRMA’s recruitment of American expertise is the latest development in a continuing battle between record labels protecting their copyrights and online peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks.

“We have specialists on P2P sites watching what’s going on,” said Doyle. “We’re not only issuing warnings to people but also gathering information about the behaviour of certain individuals. This stuff could be used in litigation in a couple of months’ time.”

Internet service providers (ISPs), which could be required to identify individual customers through court orders, have voiced concerns.

“I don’t think our members feel it right to have private investigations actively going on when the assumption of guilt is the wrong way round,” said Paul Durrant of the Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland.

“The methodology and morality of it are very questionable,” he said. “It’s not illegal but it’s what you could call sharp practice. We do not condone pirating of music over our services, but we also have to think about the privacy of our customers.”

Although Doyle refused to name the company carrying out the surveillance, the general manager of Overpeer, an American firm that provides “digital media data-mining and anti-piracy solutions”, admitted that it was operating in the republic.

“If someone in Ireland was trying to download a pirate file that we’re covering, our anti- piracy would impact that, yes,” said Marc Morgenstern at Overpeer. The company boasts that it can target its efforts “to a specific geography”, and has already done so in France, Germany and elsewhere.

Morgenstern said: “We intervene to stop piracy and we literally do that billions of times a month. We gather data of those people offering pirate files for sharing — that includes all the file data as well as the internet protocol (IP) address of the person offering the file.”

Overpeer also introduce “spoof” files to networks, the most famous being Madonna’s Living in America that, when downloaded, was a recording of her saying “f*** off and buy the album”. The company has also been accused of introducing virus files that corrupt copies of copyrighted tracks in users’ hard drives.

The Recording Industry Association of America has brought more than 4,600 suits against users, negotiating settlements of about $3,000 each with more than 900 people.

In a landmark case in Britain last Thursday, an ISP was forced by the British Phonographic Industry to release the identities of 28 customers against whom it had gathered evidence.

“It’s a serious crime,” said Doyle. “You actually are stealing. It’s the same as if you went in and did it in a shop.”

Nameer Kazzaz, an internet security consultant, sees Overpeer’s activities as “white hacking”. “These guys will go for common names and files held by users with Irish IP blocks,” Kazzaz predicted. “If you’re connected in Ireland you’ll be within a certain block assigned by your ISP. They just need some powerful machines to profile so many people at once, and a big connection. They could probably do it in 48 hours or less.

“My guess is they’ll generate profiles first for about the first 100 most active users. Within their profile will be logging hours and time stamps. They match those to real people through the ISP’s records. Then that’s it, they’ve got them.”

Eric Garland at Big Champagne, a company that compiles statistics on P2P network usage, called it a “great shock-and-awe tactic” but whose effectiveness deteriorates as time goes on.

“Those that are most likely to be sued are the casual, naive downloaders, young and old who aren’t savvy,” he says. “Those who do this regularly know how to avoid these efforts and it’s not hard.”

This is like a disease that keeps spreading. I wish one country would stand up to these people and tell them to shove it. How cold does Canada get anyway, pepe?

you know these record companies are heading toward a worldwide backlash. in a way I can't wait to see it

And so it begins..

It brings to mind the new miniseries on scifi "the peacekeeper wars".

How many casualties before we have another "northern ireland"?

Yea, point taken, but what we want to know is who the ISP is? Because once we find out we will be boycotting the ISP for giving in to them. Outr ISP's when we join them have fine prints and we read them and mine specifically states and I will hold them to it, that " We respect the privacy".

Hye if they want another N. Ireland, then so be it, and N. Ireland isn't afraid either, we had over 30 years of fighting and I was born into it and we will and continue to stand against being "under the thumb"

Yea ok, the south has started, well to be honest the south has always been more known over the years as being Americanised and continues to do so, so it's not a suprise that they adapted so quickly, after all as the saying here in N. Ireland the most famous we have is "No Surrender and Ulster says No!!"

Drac0--do you like Snow Patrol? I love them!!!!!

All they need is a patroit act like we have and an attorney general like Ashcroft and they can join the USA ban wagon to round up p2p criminals.

Carlaa60626, Not sure what Snow Patrol is?

lol last few elections, we have had, we showed both N. Ireland and mainland UK governments just what we thought of their policy's Mr Blair got the shock of his life at just how little votes his party recieved, when they tried to introduce a policy

And I thought this was about some campaign to stop the downloading of Irish music...

"The company has also been accused of introducing virus files that corrupt copies of copyrighted tracks in users’ hard drives."

For hackers spreading viruses of any nature, that is a federal offense. So where are the cops on this one? Here you have the music industry claiming they have been wronged and at the same time admitting they are speading viruses.

As far as the other ones, like the Maddona file it seems to me that this could very easily be a violation of the DMCA and the p2p software companies rights.

But tell me, did they really do that? Put out spoofed files?

Most likely in France some companies headquarter will be torched. You will see.
I think this is fair.

What some hacker needs to do is write a virus bot that meanders around the internet residing on webservers collecting mp3s, then it distributes them all over the net...hehehe!!

Snow Patrol is a band with guys from Belfast.

One more to add to the hate list. Power to the people!!

"Most likely in France some companies headquarter will be torched. You will see.
I think this is fair."

What companies are those?

So, now the Irish music industry is going to sue the wee folk.

Sorry, someone was going to say it.