cearta.ie – Page 159 – the Irish for rights

Via a story by John Kennedy in Silicon Republic, I learn that Irish practising lawyers will soon be able to meet their continuing professional development requirements by downloading lectures onto their mp3 players. It’s all a far cry from the apocryphal English judge in the 1960s posing the famous question: “Who are the Beatles?” (and equally silly enquiries or admissions). Now, it seems that Ireland’s barristers and solicitors will be able to listen to learned lectures on recent legal developments and then segue straight into Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Beatles‘ site | wikipedia) or Justin or Rihanna or Wolfgang or Ludwig.

In Ireland, both solicitors and barristers have continuing professional development obligations, to maintain, develop, improve, and broaden their professional and personal knowledge, skills and abilities. It basically boils down to attending conferences to keep up to date. Now, according to Silicon Republic, a joint venture between Irish e-learning firm Prime Learning and legal publishers First Law means that, since 23 July last, relevant courseware is accessible and audio downloads are available at FirstCPD. From FirstCPD’s “About Us” page:

FirstCPD is Irelandâ€™s first dedicated website for the delivery of leading-edge, online education for professionals in various disciplines.

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How long should the copyright term be?

31 July, 200720 August, 2007

| 3 Comments

| Copyright

At present, at Irish law, the basic copyright term is the life of the author plus seventy years (see section 24 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000 (see also here)).

We have come a long way from the eighteenth century’s 14 year term (renewable once). Or have we? Peter Black points to the following story in Ars Technica in which an economist is now arguing that 14 years is the optimal level for copyright protection [with additional links]:

Researcher: Optimal copyright term is 14 years

By Nate Anderson | Published: July 12, 2007 – 01:36PM CT

It’s easy enough to find out how long copyrights last, but much harder to decide how long they should lastâ€”but that didn’t stop Cambridge University [link] PhD candidate [link] Rufus Pollock [link] from using economics formulas to answer the question. In a newly-released paper, Pollock pegs the “optimal level for copyright” at only 14 years.

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You don’t know what you’ve lost till it’s gone? Privacy in a world gone Web2.0

29 July, 200724 February, 2009

| 10 Comments

| data retention, Media and Communications, Privacy

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi

I’ve had this Joni Mitchell song going round in my head since I read Damien Mulley’s apocalyptic post Privacy in a world of lifestreaming on Friday (and the song is relevant to my point even though Joni has sold out to Starbucks – say it ain’t so, Joni, say it ain’t so – she has signed a 2-album deal with Starbucks’ “Hear Music” label, and the first album, released in September, will contain a new version of Big Yellow Taxi).

Anyway, prompted in part by a story that UK police will soon have cameras in their helmets, Damien raises important questions about a world where our privacy is invaded – not so much by state surveillance or corporate cctv, which we all now recognise, tolerate, even accept (so the helmet cams are little more than portable cctv) – as by each other, as others post photos of us to flickr (or other photo sharing sites), or videos of us to YouTube (or other video sharing sites), or all this and much much more on bebo (or other social networking sites), to say nothing of what we reveal about others in the blogosphere.…

Justice shall be administered in public

28 July, 200720 March, 2013

| 9 Comments

| Irish Society, Media and Communications, Open Justice

Article 34.1 of the Constitution provides that

Justice shall be administered in courts established by law by judges appointed in the manner provided by this Constitution, and, save in such special and limited cases as may be prescribed by law, shall be administered in public.

Giving judgment in the Supreme Court yesterday in a very sad case, Hardiman J began by saying:

On the hearing of this appeal the Court was requested on both sides of the case to take such steps as were possible to prevent the publication of the applicant’s name or at of any detail which might identify him. This was requested on the basis that he was, undisputedly, a person under a disability.

The Court did not consider that it had, in these proceedings, any power to make an order in that regard. However the Court agreed to, and did, request any representatives of the media who might be present not to publish his name and said that it would not itself do so. The Court now repeats this request to any person who may wish to report this case either for the ordinary media or for the purposes of law reporting.

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Simpsons’ Law

27 July, 200724 September, 2008

| No Comments

| Cinema, television and theatre, Copyright, Privacy

Having had the pleasure of seeing The Simpsons Movie (imdb | wikipedia | and see here for a legal dispute about the domain name), I’m going to leave the reviews to the movie professionals (not perfect, but … the funniest animated film in years, writes Donald Clarke in The Ticket supplement to today’s Irish Times), and make only three quick comments from the perspectives of legal issues often raised on this blog. Warning, there are mild movie plot spoilers here.

First, copyright. When the movie reaches the tv series credit sequence, this remade sequence has Bart write on the chalkboard “I will not illegally download this movie”.

Second, privacy. There is a wonderful sequence where Marge and Lisa chat on a train and the scene cuts to an ominously huge government listening operation, where the operative listening in on their conversation celebrates wildly on having found the only useful piece of information (ever?).

Third, legal research. Last week’s “Friday Fillip” on Slaw meditated on the linkages between The Simpsons and Legal Research; and there’s more in the same vein here.

As I have often seen online: share and enjoy.…

Wigs and Gowns on Judges and Barristers – Silly Anachronism or Necessary Solemnity?

25 July, 200723 October, 2011

| 6 Comments

| Court dress, judges, Law

A few weeks ago, Pupilblogger wrote, of the barrister’s wig and gown:

I wore a wig and my gown in combat for the first time today. And the bloody tunic shirt with detachable collars, the wing collar and the bands.

Did I look and feel silly? You bet. I looked no sillier than any other barristers in court, of course, but they are at least used to it by now. …

Next year’s pupilbloggers won’t have to look quite so silly any more. I learn (via ContractsProf Blog and Concurring Opinions) that in England and Wales, the wearing of wigs, wing collars and bands by judges and advocates in civil and family courts, but not in criminal courts, is to be abolished from 1 January 2008, and that judicial gowns are to be radically simplified from the same date. Following a public consultation paper on court working dress, prepared in 2003 (html | pdf) but only released in June of this year, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers (BBC | wikipedia) took the decision to make life easier for pupilbloggers everywhere. He explained (from the press release):

At present High Court judges have no less than five different sets of working dress, depending on the jurisdiction in which they are sitting and the season of the year.

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Samaritans 24/7

24 July, 20071 February, 2009

| 1 Comment

| General

At Saramitans, someone is there 24/7 – twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, since 1953 – to help anyone who needs emotional support. So it’s fitting that they should choose today, the twenty-fourth of July, as their fundraising and awareness day (hat tip: RTÉ news; see also their press release).

Samaritans provides confidential non-judgmental support, 24 hours a day for people experiencing feelings of distress or despair, including those which could lead to suicide.

The Dublin branch, founded in 1970 and now at 112 Marlborough Street, Dublin 1, are hoping that residents of Dublin and the greater Dublin area will lend a hand in 24/7 promotion and fundraising.

Their other main contact details are

mail: jo@samaritans.org
call: 1850 60 90 90 (Ireland)
call: 01 8727700 (Dublin branch)

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Another good day for privacy

20 July, 200727 July, 2007

| 4 Comments

| Digital Rights, Irish Society, Media and Communications

It’s a pretty common occurrence: your mobile phone beeps to record an incoming text message, and when you open it, it’s an unsolicited and unwelcome marketing message. Some are trivial, like your network’s most recent offer to customers on your tariff. But some are insidious, seemingly innocuous but containing great danger. Most people delete them, but some are sucked in, and the mobile phone costs (never cheap) suddenly become ruinous, as customers rack up huge bills on foot of premium rate charges incurred in following up on some of the marketing texts. Regtel, which regulates premium rate mobile phone services, has a useful page on stopping unwanted premium rate messages.

Those who receive the texts, and those who are taken in by the scams, can complain to Regtel or to the office of the Data Protection Commissioner, which are working together to combat mobile spam. So, today, following many such compaints, and an investigation by Regtel, officials from the Data Protection Commisioner’s office raided the offices of a number of companies involved in the mobile phone text marketing business (Ireland.com Breaking News | RTÃ‰ | Marie Boran in Silicon Republic). …