This is a quick blog post, as it is getting rather late at night.

First, if you have no idea what is going on, you NEED to check out two places. Firstly, BlackOutIreland.com, which should hopefully be online tomorrow. This site, run by somebody with MUCH more free time then me (Ben McRedmond – He will be much more active with this then I will, due to my huge lack of free time with exams, and his over abundance of free time with lack of said exams) will soon contain the best source of information on the blackout. Secondly my previous blog post which might answer some of your questions.

Now, a roundup of what has happened in the last 24 hours.

• BlackKnight got sent one of the nasty IRMA letters they have been sending out to all the ISPs. Ignoring the fact that BlackKnight is NOT an ISP, it is a really interesting read. The Register have a pretty thorough dissection of it, so I won’t go into too much detail here.
• Several members of the #blackoutIRL group are seeking legal guidance as to what should happen next.
• As I mentioned before, Ben is starting up a dedicated Blackout Ireland site. Him and Ben Chapman are also organizing some leaflets, possible public demonstrations and the organizers of Blackout Ireland are working on something cool enough to blow your socks off. Can’t say much more now, but if it happens, it will HAPPEN!
• It has been decided that Blackout Ireland will run from Black Thursday (5th of March) for one whole week. If you are taking part, please use one of the three “official” Blackout Ireland avatars I posted in my previous post, or grab one of one of your twitter friends. (The avatars are of course not just for Twitter. Myspace, Facebook, MSN, whatever!)

Now, what I am really here to talk to you about.

After my previous blog post, I got a fair few emails. Most of these were from awesome readers like you, wanting to know more information. Hopefully Ben can sort that out for you. One or two, however, were from some very interesting people. Those who follow me on twitter may have noticed me splurging about a member of a company deeply involved in internet service providing sending me an email of support. This was cool, but not the coolest email I got.

I got an email from a source who wishes to remain anonymous. I trust this source though, and did some rummaging. He is legit.

This guy is somebody VERY high in one of ISPs. And he is on our side. We have been having a good old conversation, and he sent me the following warning:

FYI please encourage people to write/email their ISP asking them to
stand up to this. Contacting Eammon Ryan is great but that’s about
long-term action. In the short term, ISPs are deciding this week what
to do and taking legal advice, so if they hear from their users it
will make a difference. In general, people can write/email for the
attention of “Regulatory Affairs Manager“.

ISPs are deciding NOW what to do. If we want to put a stop to this madness sooner rather then later, we need to act NOW.

What can you do right now is head on down to the ISPAI member’s page and find the contact details for your ISP. Send them a polite email stating how worried you are about this new development. Learn about what is going on, why we are protesting it and what harm it can bring to the whole Irish internet system.

Notify your local media. Soon I shall be posting a blogpost about some ways of doing this, but just ring up your local news station and talk to them about the Blackout. Write letters to your local free newspaper. Wave your arms around. Jump up and down. Do whatever it takes to get this news into the mouth of the public.

Tags: blackout, eircom, Facebook, twitter