Eircom's actions set a dangerous precedent

Over the weekend a storm in a teacup raged over Techcrunch’s claim that Last.fm had given data to the RIAA to allow the music industry body to identify which users of the service had been listening to illegally obtained copies of the new U2 album ahead of release.

Remember I wrote about how Sony had badly handled customer complaints recently? Last.fm’s response to Techcrunch’s allegations was the exact opposite of Sony’s approach. The first thing they did right was acting quickly. Within minutes of the Techcrunch piece hitting people’s feed readers late on Friday night Last.fm staff were commenting on the original Techcrunch post as well as firefighting over on their own forums, where users were understandably venting their frustration. In order to hopefully draw a line under the while affair they posted a piece on their company blog today saying in no uncertain terms that Techcrunch were wrong.

It’s possible that Last.fm are lying and that they really are sharing potentially incriminating data about their users with music industry bodies but their fast, open response claiming it wouldn’t be possible without everyone at the company finding out mean their users are a lot more likely to believe them than the scandal and page impression-hungry lot at Techcrunch. Last.fm’s response to this affair shows that they value their users and understand the importance of getting a positive message out as soon as possible.

Chances are, then, that this is a bit of a non-story and one that may distract attention from much more serious goings on in Ireland. Torrentfreak reports that the country’s biggest ISP, Eircom, has now agreed to block any site or service that the music industry finds objectionable. ISPs the world over have been fighting against pressure to them do this for years and now the main player in Ireland has rolled over and become the music industry’s bitch.

With other Irish ISPs reportedly being pressured into following suit, how long before this spreads to other countries? Big business having a veto over what is accessed online is a slippery slope and one that needs fighting at every opportunity.

I doubt the music industry will have a free ride on this one. As New Zealand has shown over the last week, people aren’t afraid to stand up and protest when the freedom and independence of the internet is at stake.