Irish ISP to block P2P and music sharing sites

Eircom will be blocking the Pirate Bay and sites of that nature under threat of legal action from the Irish Recorded Music Association.

In late January, Irish ISP Eircom adopted the now famous "graduated response" to illegal file sharing pioneered by the French, where suspected file sharers are given three strikes and then cut off from the Internet entirely. Now, Ireland's Sunday Business Post reports that Eircom is working with the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) to block all music swapping sites from general user access. The ISP's move was reportedly made under threat of legal action from IRMA.

Naturally, with all the attention being given to The Pirate Bay, the Swedish torrent site was given "public enemy number one" slot, and was the only site listed by name in IRMA's letter to Eircom. A blacklist of similar sites is soon to follow.