"Twitter blackout" appears to be the new "march downtown waving placards." Emboldened by the success of New Zealand's recent avatar blackout, a group called Blackout Ireland tries the same approach on the Emerald Isle in an effort to head off graduated response policies from Irish ISPs.

The idea is that avatars on Twitter, Facebook, and similar services will be replaced with a black box, starting today, in protest over demands from the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). IRMA recently sued the country's largest ISP, Eircom, and dismissed the suit only when Eircom agreed to disconnect P2P users identified by the music industry for swapping copyrighted files.

Soon after, IRMA pressed its advantage by firing off a strong letter to other ISPs (one Internet hosting company has posted the letter it received). In the letters, IRMA agrees that ISPs are generally "mere conduits" under European law but that they must still take down copyrighted material when notified of its existence by a rights-holder. Rather than applying this simply to cases in which the ISP actually has something to "take down"—it might host free subscriber web pages or online storage lockers, for instance—IRMA says that ISPs must actually disconnect repeat P2P infringers and block access to websites like The Pirate Bay.

The letter demands that other Irish ISPs agree to the same terms as Eircom, threatens legal action against those ISPs that don't comply, and provides only a week in which to respond.

New Zealand has been pushing a similar approach to copyright infringement, but one that came from the government rather than private agreements. It was due to go into effect last week, but implementation was delayed after ISPs and rights-holders failed to come to terms on all sorts of important questions, such as how many warnings would be given, what the standards of evidence would be, whether a third party would hear customer appeals, and whether libraries and businesses would also be cut off after a couple of infringing transfers were detected.

The same issues are riling up Irish bloggers, including Aubrey Robinson, who describes himself as a "has-been activist and radar maker." "These new policies have serious implications for internet freedom, as they open the door for other private companies to obtain similar powers in dictating, without due process, who or what is permissible online," said Robinson yesterday.

In response to IRMA, Robinson has organized Blackout Ireland (and the requisite Facebook group). In addition to the avatar blackout, the site also suggests writing one's representative and the Irish Communications Minister, Eamon Ryan. (Which is, probably, the more effective approach.)

Despite the bluff certainty displayed in the IRMA letter, graduated response plans have received a sharply mixed reception in Europe, especially when the ultimate penalty is total Internet disconnection. The European Parliament has already expressed its displeasure with this approach, as has the German government. Even the UK, which is considering some form of mandated graduated response, has taken disconnection off the menu. The thinking in most cases is that the penalty simply doesn't fit the crime—and such moves would likely lead to a rash of court cases.

While the Irish situation would appear to more closely mirror France and New Zealand's approaches, both of those countries had industry consultations before giving government backing to any specific scheme. In Ireland, graduated response appears to be much more of a one-sided imposition—an "our way or the highway" approach to dealing with ISPs that seems sure to invite resistance.