Proposed amendment to Irish Copyright Law

Some months ago I wrote about the decision made in EMI V UPC in Ireland. In this case the music industry sought to force UPC to observe a private agreement made by the industry with another provider, Eircom, the former Irish Telecom monopoly, whereby users identified by music industry agents as infringing their copyrights would have their connections terminated after three alleged infractions.

EMI’s application failed. But ten days ago the Department of Enterprise and Innovation (the Irish ministry with legislative initiative in the sector), published a draft amendment to the Copyright Act of 2000, in an apparent attempt to provide the legislative basis for such judicial orders. A consultation period regarding the proposed amendment will continue until the end of July

Subsequent to his decsion in EMI v UPC, I had the chance to listen to the judge, Peter Charleston, give his impressions about the issues. He was thoughtful, but was also obviously somewhat at sea in a culture whose nuances he did not quite grasp. He recounted how the Irish police had visited him after the judgement, to warn him that his decision had displeased people on the internet in places like Kazakhstan and Uzbekhistan, and that they might seek revenge by stealing his credit card numbers or planting child pornography on his computer.

As he told this story I couldn’t judge whether he was being earnest or sarcastic. Perhaps Anonymous has managed to psych out the Irish police, as well as fooling them with a bit of proxying. More on this tomorrow, for now here is the text of the proposed amendment.

Draft Regulations
S.I. No. of 2011
European Communities (Copyright and Related Rights) Regulations 2011.
I, Richard Bruton, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972 (No. 27 of 1972) and for the purpose of giving further effect to Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society [1], as amended by Corrigendum[2], hereby make the following Regulations:
1. These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Copyright and Related Rights) Regulations 2011.
2. In these Regulations –
“Act of 2000” means the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 (No. 28 of 2000);
“Directive” means Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society as amended by Corrigendum
3. The Act of 2000 is hereby amended by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (5) of section 40:
(5A)(a) without prejudice to subsections (3) and (4), the owner of the copyright in the work concerned may apply to the High Court for an injunction against a person who provides facilities referred to in subsection (3) where those facilities are being used by one or more third parties to infringe the copyright in that work.
(b) In considering an application for an injunction under this subsection, the court shall have due regard to the rights of any third party likely to be affected and the court shall make such directions (including, where appropriate, a direction requiring a third party to be put on notice of the application) as the court may deem necessary or appropriate in all the circumstances.
4.The Act of 2000 is hereby amended by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (9) of section 205:
(9A)(a) without prejudice to subsections (7) and (8), the rightsowner may apply to the High Court for an injunction against a person who provides facilities referred to in subsection (7) where those facilities are used by one or more third parties to infringe any of the rights referred to in Parts III and IV.
(b) In considering an application for an injunction under this subsection, the court shall have due regard to the rights of any third party likely to be affected and the court shall make such directions (including, where appropriate, a direction requiring a third party to be put on notice of the application) as the court may deem necessary or appropriate in all the circumstances.
GIVEN under my Official Seal,
This day of 2011
Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
[1] OJ No. L167, 22.6.2001, p. 10

[2] OJ No. L 006 10.1.2002 p.70