Court date for animal rights free expression complaint | HUMANERIGHTSEUROPE
The Grand Chamber hearing Animal Defenders International v. the United Kingdom (Application no. 48876/08) will take place on 7 March.
#CRC12 Paper: Chapter 5 – Collecting Societies
Chapter 5 of the Copyright Review Committee‘s Consultation Paper briefly considers the position of collecting societies (update: you can download a pdf of the Paper here (via DJEI) or here (from this site)). Where rights-holders have established such societies to grant licences in copyrighted works and collect copyright royalties for distribution back to the rights-holders, they give effect to rights-holders’ rights in a very important practical way, and therefore constitute an important means by which rights-holders manage their copyrights and are rewarded for their investments and innovation.
The Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000 (also here) provides for licensing schemes and the registration of collecting societies, but this is an bewilderingly byzantine area in practice, and in chapter 3 of the Paper, the Committee raised the question of whether many of those issues could be resolved by means of a body like the Copyright Council sketched in that chapter.
If a Council is not established, this chapter asks if there are any other practical mechanisms which might resolve those issues. It also asks if there are any issues relating to copyright licensing and collecting societies which were not addressed in earlier chapters but which can be resolved by amendments to the Act of 2000.…
Defending Blasphemy: Exploring Religious Expression Under Ireland’s Blasphemy Law by Katherine Jacob :: SSRN
This Note considers the blasphemy provisions of Ireland’s 2009 Defamation Act and examines its limitations on religious expression. By analyzing the effects of religious expression’s omission from the Act’s protection, this Note argues that enforcement under the Act may be impermissible under both Bunreacht na hÉireann and international law. To rectify the Act’s failure to defend religious expression, this Note proposes that the Act be amended to permit religious expression as a defense for blasphemy. It then applies the proposed defense to examples of speech that otherwise might run afoul under the Act.
via papers.ssrn.com
#CRC12 – Online submissions – the more, the merrier
I’m delighted that lots of people are engaging with the consultation process on the Copyright Review Committee‘s Consultation Paper (update: you can download a pdf of the Paper here (via DJEI) or here (from this site)). First, the Committee now has a dedicated website and it will be directly linked from the Department’s homepage until the Review process is complete. The Committee’s site provides various ways to participate in the consultation process. As well as by post and email, the Committee has prepared an online questionnaire to reply to the questions they pose in the Consultation Paper.
Second, taking up an invitation from the Minister of State with responsibility for Research and Innovation at the Department of Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation, Seán Sherlock TD, the Irish Internet Association is also providing an online mechanism to facilitate internet stakeholders who wish to respond to the Paper. This will collate the views of its members and of the members of the Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland, and will gather the views of other members of the online community who wish to provide feedback in this way.
Third, Bernie Goldbach and David Brophy have written blogposts listing all of the questions from the Paper, making them very easily accessible indeed (update: I’ve also got around to listing them on this blog as well).…
The Digital Consequences of Death (or Disability) — Slaw
What happens when people with a presence in cyberspace (really) die? Does the presence become an absence? What do their survivors do about their activities in cyberspace? How do they deal with online assets, or even discover real-world assets that may be locatable only online? How do estate trustees and executors carry out their legal duties with respect to these assets, and the liabilities as well? Many people get most of their bills in electronic form. How can an executor see to paying the debts of the deceased? …
Slaw has dealt with these matters before, in November 2009 and in February 2010. The questions are worth another review.
via slaw.ca
French law on disputing ‘recognized’ genocides held unconstitutional — Slaw
The French constitutional court has held unconstitutional the law passed in January of this year (that’s a fast decision by our standards) that made it illegal to dispute any genocide recognized by law. This kind of rule did not fall into the proper scope of a legal rule. While it was possible for the law to govern the exercise of speech to protect its freedom, this statute went in the opposite direction.
via slaw.ca
#CRC12 Paper: Chapter 4 – Rights-holders
Chapter 4 of the Copyright Review Committee‘s Consultation Paper considers the position of rights-holders in copyright law in general, and how such rights-holders contribute to the process of innovation in particular (update: you can download a pdf of the Paper here (via DJEI) or here (from this site)). The intersection between copyright and innovation is clear in the case of rights-holders, who benefit from the rights conferred by copyright law in two main ways: they can commercially exploit their works, and they protect the artistic integrity of their works. The central premise from which copyright law has developed is that it is the potential reward provided by copyright that encourages the art, movie, music, programming and writing. In that sense, copyright law fosters and protects innovation. Moreover, copyright provides rights-holders legal protection for the artistic integrity of their works. Nevertheless, both of these justifications look not only to the rights-holder, but also to the public benefit of the work: the State affords copyright protection to rights-holders because a diverse range of work is for the public benefit or the common good; and the appropriate reward afforded to the rights-holder is not an end in itself, but rather the means to this diversity, competition and innovation.…
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