Irish and EU digital rights

Hi Maracas,

I was wondering if you could clarify what you mean by digital rights - as in is there a specific question on a specific issue?

Your 'digital rights' in Ireland are the protections given to you by the DPC and their website would be the best place to start. Also digitalrightsirleand is an advocacy group that would be able to provide you with some insight on what the current state of play is.

At a European level there are other rights that have come out of various ruling's but they have not been implemented in Irish law yet unless your going to challenge something on the statue books here to show that it should be over ruled by EU decision. Rulings such as ISP blocking of websites e.g. The Pirate Bay in contravention to human rights, GCHQ interception of phone calls originating in Ireland that were transmitted from Hollyhead to London before routing to final destination, use of IP as an identifier for copyright cases, three strikes rule etc

Also as far as I am aware Ireland has a quazi SOPA/PIPA style legislation in place that was brought in by 'Minister' Sean Sherlock via statutory instrument, this is the legislation that has been used to block the likes of the Pirate Bay etc. And if memory serves me right he refused a public debate on the legislation and it was only when enough pressure was applied from the Boards.ie community and others that he finally agreed to the public debate during which he admitted that he had not read the legislation in its entirety before signing it into law.

To highlight the complexity of the area's surrounding digital rights have a look at the article below

http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/plans-for-uk-web-monitoring-could-affect-irish-users-403691-Apr2012/

Whatever rights you have will be super seeded by UK legislation because nearly all Irish internet traffic goes through the UK. And as we know the GCHQ aren't exactly concerned about annoying things like the law.