Major Record Labels Go To Court Again To Force Irish ISP To Bring In 'Three Strikes'

Last September, Techdirt wrote about an extremely thorough review of the "three strikes" schemes around the world, which showed pretty conclusively that they simply don't achieve their stated goals. But that doesn't seem to worry the recording companies, which are trying again to compel the second-biggest ISP in Ireland to bring in the "three strikes" approach, as TorrentFreak reports:
The world's largest record labels have gone to court to force Ireland's second largest Internet service provider to take action against file-sharers. Following a failed bid three-and-a-half years ago, Sony, Universal and Warner are back with fresh action against UPC, demanding that the ISP implements a three-strikes-and-you're-out approach to its pirating customers.
There's quite a complicated backstory to all this, which Techdirt has been tracking for a while. In 2008, recording companies sued Ireland's largest ISP, Eircom, over alleged file sharing by its customers. As part of a settlement, Eircom agreed to bring in a "three strikes" system. The recording companies then moved on to UPC, which refused to roll over, and went on to defeat the labels in court. However, since then the legal landscape in Ireland has changed, as TorrentFreak explains:
The case, set to go before the Commercial Court, could turn on whether legislation introduced in Ireland during 2012 will allow a judgment in [the Irish Recorded Music Association]'s favor. Already the courts have shown a willingness to clamp down on illegal file-sharing, ordering ISP blockades of sites including The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents.
It's really ridiculous to see the international recording industry expending so much money and effort trying to force ISPs to punish their customers in this way when we have evidence from around the world that the "three strikes" approach just doesn't work. It's also sad to see the Irish government aiding and abetting them in this pointless attack on its own citizens.