As the major record companies in Eire take Irish internet Service Provider (ISP) Eircom to court in order to force them to implement countermeasures against piracy, the Swedish parliament considers forcing ISPs to turn over the details of serial illegal downloaders, ISPs, and copyright holders in Japan have reached an agreement by which Japan's largest four ISPs will ban flagrant copyright infringers.

Copyright owners will peruse lists of IP addresses downloading their works, and will then send that lists to the ISPs, who will warn the owners of the IP addresses and, if their behaviour doesn't change, ban them.