Ireland's largest ISP to start 'throttling' illegal downloaders

As record companies across the world continue to fight a largely losing battle to protect their copyrights, they are looking to a voluntary agreement with Eircom, Ireland's largest Internet service provider (ISP), as a possible new model. Next month, Eircom will be rolling out the trial phase of the strategy promised in the agreement, testing a new "three strikes and you're out" approach to first delay, and then deny, Internet service to people who use filesharing networks to illegally download music. First-time offenders will get a warning on their bill; a second offense will see service "throttled," which means that download speeds will be reduced to a snail's pace, and a third offense will cause disconnection.