Following the pattern of the music associations in the USA and UK, the IRMA (Irish Recorded Music Association) is starting to put pressure on music file sharers. They told Digital Lifestyles that the popularity of P2P is strong in Ireland – “Anything that happens there happens here too.”
Dick Doyle, Director General of IRMA explained that they will soon run a campaign sending out messages to P2P users warning them to avoid using file sharing programmes and advising them to disable the share feature. While it is true that a large part of their business involves the movement of copyrighted material, BitTorrent and its pals Kazaa and eDonkey are also being used for legitimate content.
He went on to tell us that they are in the process of litigating, but that it would take a further 2-3 months. “We are following what the US did a few years ago – suing the end users. We ask the ISPs to disclose the identification of P2P users, and if they don’t, we take them to court. We do want to retain a good relationship with the ISPs though.”
So, how much of the money goes to the artists in Ireland then? “If huge payments are made we will of course share these with the artists”, says Doyle.