UPCs victory in the Irish courts this week in the action taken by four major international music labels has raised a furore in the media about how Ireland is not doing enough to protect the interests of Irish artists. An article in the Independent seems to suggest that Ireland has not implemented the EU laws governing internet piracy. In the same article Paul McGuinness calls on the government to implement this legislation as a matter of urgency in order to help protect Irish Artists.
Interestingly an article on the same subject in the Guardian re-iterates much of what was written in the Irish papers on the subject this week. However, some of the bloggers who responded to the article have identified that there is no EU directive which actually enforces ISPs to implement a three strike rule at all.
Perhaps the Irish arms of the major record companies involved in the case should be looking to the solution recently floated by the French. Wired reported that the French government are planning to subsidise digital downloads with the introduction of "carte musique". Although, I can't see them being able to convince the Finance Minister to stump up the €50 million the French have estimated will be required.
A solution like this might in the long run be a better way to help Irish Artists, particularly if whatever method used to distrbute music allows support of musicians who don't currently come under the wing of the larger labels and currently rely on other means of promotion.
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