They are stealing from our artists and affecting the livelihood of many people in the music industry.
Dick, you’d want to be very careful saying that about the people you want to bring actions against. Surely you need proof of that before you make such a soundbite?
Mr. Doyle also warned parents to be ever vigilant with the family computer as many young people were involved in file sharing probably unbeknownst to their parents.
But you’ll still stiff the parents with a whopper of a bill, won’t you Dick? Or will IRMA just forgive the parents for the sins of their poorly educated kids?
Update: Commentary from Digital Rights Ireland. Older commentary 1 Older commentary 2
Asking me for twenty quid for an album I want one track off is affecting my livelihood, dammit!
[…] IRMA may also have undermined their action by saying that “many young people were involved in file sharing probably unbeknownst to their parents“. As Philip Nolan has pointed out in the Irish Times a parent is not automatically liable for the wrongdoing of their children: Under Irish law, copyright is infringed where a person commits certain acts, or authorizes another to do so, without the permission of the copyright owner. Therefore, the owner of a computer which was used to download illegal songs but who was totally unaware of this, and who did not authorize it, might not be liable for copyright infringement. This may not be a problem where the relationship between the owner and infringer is one of employer and employee, for example, as liability can generally be attributed to the employer.Where the relationship is that of parent and child, however, novel issues of parental responsibility could arise. […]
What are they targeting? Direct HTTP downloads? Gnutella? Bittorrent?