An open letter from Boards.ie to Minister Sean Sherlock

Wednesday January 25, 2012

Stephen Donnelly

There is much concern about legislation proposed by the Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Sean Sherlock, for Tuesday next. I have been contacted, as I am sure many Deputies have, by many people who are concerned about this. I have just got off the phone from someone who runs a major Internet company in Ireland. His concern, and that of his colleagues who are running other Internet companies, is that they will immediately have to shut down all operations because this legislation would force them into the courts because they cannot control all links to IP. There is huge concern about this. The people I talk to say they cannot get their hands on the legislation to see it and debate it. It is due to be passed as secondary legislation by ministerial order on Tuesday. Would it be possible to pause the ministerial order, even for a few days, and to have the legislation published and debated by the House? I have spoken to some very credible people in Ireland who are saying this has serious implications for Internet provision in Ireland, for American multinationals here and for the smart economy and so forth.

The Taoiseach

I have read the report of this. The Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, is dealing with the matter. In the High Court judgment of 11 October 2010, in the case of EMI & Others v UPC, Mr. Justice Charleton decided he was constrained by the wording of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 and thus could not grant an injunction to prevent infringement of copyright against UPC, which is an information service provider, ISP, in the circumstances of mere conduit, or transient communications. In doing so Mr. Justice Charleton stated that Ireland had not fully transposed the relevant directive. The mere conduit principle provides that if an ISP does not initiate a transmission or modify the material contained in the transmission and does not select the receiver of the transmission it is granted safe harbour against liability by virtue of the eCommerce Directive 2000/31/EC. However, according to the same directive this freedom from liability does not affect the power of the courts to require service providers to terminate or prevent copyright infringements.

This gets very complicated. I understand the matter is being brought before the Cabinet, so there will be some short period for explanation. I could give the Deputy a very detailed response.

The Attorney General, at that time, was asked by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources for his advice as to the implications of the High Court judgment. While the Attorney General considered that the position is not as clear cut as Mr. Justice Charleton suggests, his advice was that as long as the Irish courts take the view that subsection 40(4) of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 does not implement Article 8.3 of the relevant directive, Ireland is exposed to a claim for damages for failure to implement EU law. The prudent course he advised was to introduce a regulation to ensure compliance.

It is a complicated procedure but I expect the Minister of State will explain it more fully. I am aware of the comments some providers have made.

Stephen Donnelly

Could the legislation be paused, even for a few days before it is published?

The Taoiseach

It will be before the Cabinet shortly and there will be an opportunity to discuss that.

Dear sir,

[CENSORED]

Yours'
ShooterSF.

(I thought it best I get used to your vision of the internet)

Posted by spacedog
his advice was that as long as the Irish courts take the view that subsection 40(4) of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000

Boards.ie: Paddy wrote: »

**Posts: 68**

Yeah sorry about that, should be fixed now. This was very time sensitive so we didn't have a chance to test on all skins.

lynchie wrote: »

Using cloud skin, the text doesn't display on that popup.

Nobody thinks of us cloud skin users anymore :rolleyes:

lucyfur09 wrote: »

I left mr.sherlock a message on his site. I love that when i hit submit it showed me the message i'd sent,my email(that i entered) and my ip address.