COIPLPA – cearta.ie

Copyright balance, technological protection measures, rights management information, and fair dealing

10 June, 20249 July, 2024

The law of copyright seeks to balance the interests of various members of the copyright community: the authors of copyright works, the big content companies to which they license or transfer their rights, and the societies which collect their royalties; platforms and intermediaries which facilitate online distribution of and access to copyright content; and users (whether individual, or heritage, or education, etc) who wish not only to use but to build upon existing works. Legislation such as the Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000 [CRRA], and the InfoSoc Directive (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 (OJ L 167, 22.6.2001, p. 10–19)), have sought to get these balances right, but are often criticised for failing to strike them in appropriate places.

Again, it was a theme of Modernising Copyright (2013) (pdf, via here), the Report of the Copyright Review Committee [CRC Report], that reforms to the 2000 Act should balance the interests of all of the various members of the copyright community (full disclosure, I was the Chair of that committee). So, for example, in the context of technological measures for the protection of copyright or for the management of copyright information, the CRC Report recommended not only that the legal rules underpinning such measures be strengthened, but also that there would be a practical remedy where such measures operated to prevent someone from undertaking acts permitted by the exceptions provided in the copyright legislation.…

Columba’s 1,500th birthday is a good day to note that Ireland has implemented the DSM Directive, (almost) the whole DSM Directive, and nothing but the DSM Directive

8 December, 20216 February, 2024

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| COIPLPA, Columba, Copyright, CRC12 / CRC13, Digital deposit, Fair use

Happy birthday, St Columba
Today is the birthday, 1,500 years ago, in 521, of a celtic saint variously called Columba or Colmcille (pictured left). He founded many monasteries, including those in Kells, Ireland, and Iona, Scotland, where the Book of Kells was written. A tale about him forms an important part of Irish copyright lore. It is, therefore, an auspicious day on which to note that there has recently been an important development in Irish copyright law: the EU’s DSM Directive has recently been implemented into Irish law (see the European Union (Copyright and Related Rights in the Digital Single Market) Regulations 2021 (SI No 567 of 2021) (also here) (SI 567) implementing Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC (Text with EEA relevance) (OJ L 130, 17.5.2019, p. 92–125) (DSM)).

In the foreword to her magisterial Copyright in the Digital Single Market. Article-by-Article Commentary to the Provisions of Directive 2019/790 (OUP, 2021) Eleonora Rosati points out that this year is the 30th anniversary of the first harmonizing Directive in the broad copyright field and (Software Directive) and the 20th anniversary of the most significant Directive in that field (InfoSoc Directive).…

Incomplete copyright exceptions for public lectures in libraries, archives, and museums; but not – yet? – in galleries, educational establishments, or online. It’s all an unnecessary mess.

18 May, 202116 June, 2021

| 3 Comments

| COIPLPA, Copyright, CRC12 / CRC13, Fair use

In a recent comment to my post from last year, on Coronavirus and copyright – or, the copyright concerns of the widespread move to online instruction, I was asked about copyright when giving online lectures for local historical societies. The answer became too long and convoluted for a comment reply, so I thought I’d sketch it here in a post. It should have been a short reply, to the effect that there would be no copyright issues in the way of giving such lectures, but the more I thought about it, and the more I looked at the relevant legislation, the more complicated the answer became. This is not a good position for the law – unnecessary complexity is to the law’s eternal discredit. Indeed, I’m not even sure I’ve got to the bottom of the issue here. If anyone can advance the analysis, please feel free to let me know, either in the comments below, or via the site’s contact form. Meanwhile, this is my first stab at the issue, concluding quite a circuitous analysis with a recommendation for a rather more straightforward reform.

The first question is always whether copyright attaches to the images – as the cartoon, above left, suggests, it often feels like copyright is perpetual – but it does eventually time out.…

Irish copyright law must enable digital deposit (updated and corrected)

1 May, 202016 June, 2021

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| COIPLPA, Copyright, Digital deposit

In an earlier post, I took Frank McNally’s Irishman’s Diary from the weekend as the starting point to explore the modern constitutional relevance of the leading copyright case of Donaldson v Becket (1774) 2 Bro PC (2d) 129, 1 ER 837, [1774] EngR 47 (22 February 1774) (pdf); (1774) 4 Burr 2408, 98 ER 257 (pdf). It is one of the most famous cases in the history of copyright law; and McNally’s point was that one of the counsel for the successful party hailed originally from Co Roscommon. Before getting to my discussion of the case, I noted that the column had been illustrated with a picture of a young reader in the Long Room of Trinity College Dublin’s Old Library. The column and image also moved my Trinity colleague Helen Shenton (pictured left), our Librarian and College Archivist, to respond, in her case by way of a Letter to the Editor:

Digital black hole in our national memory

Sir, – Frank McNally’s amusing observations about Ireland’s long chequered relationship with copyright history (An Irishman’s Diary, April 25th) was illustrated by a photograph of the gallery of the beautiful Long Room in the Library at Trinity College Dublin.

…

Coronavirus and copyright – or, the copyright concerns of the widespread move to online instruction – updated

15 March, 202016 February, 2024

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| COIPLPA, Copyright, CRC12 / CRC13

Update: this post has been updated and revised, inter alia, to discuss the Irish Copyright Licencing Agency’s licences.

I work in Trinity College Dublin, which announced on Tuesday that education would be delivered online from next Monday. The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education has put together a very useful spreadsheet of links to useful online teaching resources. But, in our race to go online in time to deliver classes to our students, we must not forget that copyright law continues to apply. In that regard, I’m delighted to note that recent reforms to Irish copyright law will make all of our lives easier. The Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Law Provisions Act 2019 (also here) [COIPLPA] amended the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 (also here) [CRRA] in various significant ways, in particular relating to online educational uses of copyright material.

Section 50 CRRA provides for an exception of fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, section 53 provides for an exception for acts done for the purposes of instruction or examination, and section 57 provides for an exception for reprographic copying by educational establishments.…

Fair Use in South Africa; and the road not taken in Irish and Australian copyright reforms

3 December, 201916 June, 2021

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| COIPLPA, Copyright, CRC12 / CRC13, Fair use

Copyright reform is under consideration in many jurisdictions, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. It has just been completed in the EU. In Ireland, the long-awaited Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Law Provisions Act 2019 (here and here) was signed by the President on 26 June 2019 last; in an unexplained delay, it took until 26 November 2019 for the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphries, to specify 2 December 2019 as the day on which most of the Act – eventually – came into force. In a future post, I will blog about the important changes made by the Act; in this post, I want to mention a road not taken. In May 2011, the Government established a Copyright Review Committee (CRC) to identify any areas of Irish copyright legislation that might create barriers to innovation and to make recommendations to resolve any problems identified.

In particular, one of the terms of reference required the CRC to “examine the US style ‘fair use’ doctrine to see if it would be appropriate in an Irish/EU context”. It was a controversial topic, with powerful views expressed both for and against the exception.…

Digital deposit and harvesting the .ie domain

3 October, 201816 June, 2021

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| COIPLPA, Copyright, Digital deposit

I have written several times on this blog about the importance of digital deposit (here, here, here, here). Section 198 of the Copyright and Related Rights (also here) provides for the delivery of print publications by publishers to libraries specified in the Act. Under this copyright deposit or legal deposit obligation, several libraries are entitled to copies of books published in the State. However, in Ireland this obligation applies only to print publications. In many jurisdictions, this obligation has been extended to cover electronic publications and websites. With the rise of digital publishing, it is increasingly being recognised that print deposit is incomplete, and that a comprehensive preservation of a nation’s published heritage requires that copyright deposit should extend to online publications as well. Moreover, online material is disappearing at frightening pace. Hence, the Copyright Review Committee, in the Modernising Copyright Report, recommended adding a new section in the 2000 Act to extend the existing copyright deposit regime for print publication in section 198 to digital works, and to permit copyright deposit institutions to harvest the .ie domain.

After much to-ing and fro-ing charted in the earlier blogposts, section 27 of the Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Law Provisions Bill 2018 (as initiated; pdf), in a much less comprehensive provision than that recommended by the CRC, provided for a limited form of digital deposit.…