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Manhattan Diary by Cahir O'Doherty

Irish Government signs disastrous (SOPA) law to reinforce online copyright laws

Posted on Thursday, March 01, 2012 at 05:32 PM

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Labour Party Junior Minister Sean Sherlock

This is Labour Party junior Minister Sean Sherlock. It's probably not important that you remember his face because his career in Irish politics may soon be over.

Because today, to national and international outrage, Sherlock confirmed that SOPA (the highly controversial instrument that reinforces online copyrights laws in Ireland) has been signed into law.

Critics, which include most of the Irish voting public, have outlined how the SOPA legislation will limit internet freedom. Put plainly SOPA will limit your ability to blog, repost others content or even use a companies name without a trademark acknowledgement, opening the unsuspecting public up to a host of potential claims.

Online piracy won't miss a beat, but web standards like Facebook, Blogger, YouTube and so on will be put at risk.

It would help if the definitions of breach of copyright had been clearly defined, but that's not the case here at all. This legislation leaves you vulnerable to be be the subject of an injunction for even posting a song on a social network page.
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Read more:

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------------------ So the gates are closing. Now we expect the corporations to start seeking injunctions against Internet Service Providers (ISP's) to block access to entire swathes of the internet right away.

What's particularly galling is the government's high handed act. In the United States they dropped SOPA legislation because voters objected, but in Ireland they just waited for the controversy to die down and railroaded it through.

I had hoped Ireland had learned enough in recent years to move beyond this style of governance.

Ireland has put itself forward as a center for excellence in technology. But the Irish Internet Service Providers’ Association (whose members include Google) have said that this legislation is not appropriate. Sherlock is the Minister for Research and Innovation, he has no background in the internet or tech sector at all.

Our political leaders, who also have no background in the area they just legislated for, also did not listen. The question is why not? Now our government has just enacted a law that profoundly impacts on the freedom to do business and free expressions of every company and every citizen in the nation.

80,419 Irish voters told Ministers Richard Bruton and Sean Sherlock that they were wrong to take this action. The damage the government has just done to Ireland's international reputation as a tech center can not be overstated. I would like to see them explain their move in a meeting with Mark Zuckerberg, for example - if it wasn't already abundantly clear how out of their depth they actually are.

Having ignored public outrage and allowed the banks to saddle the nation with insurmountable debt, it now seems our leaders want to ignore the public in every other sphere of their self expression too. This law will kill the Irish internet.

You can send Junior Minister Sherlock your response to the legislation at the following address: www.seansherlock.ie.

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11 comments

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Pat123 | Mar 11, 2012, 12:34 PM EDT

Writing laws with unclear terms is just a way to allow lawyers to make more money and more easily intimidate people. Here in the US, there was a rash of college students getting letters from various publishers claiming they had proof of their involvement in piracy. The letter demanded that they stop immediately and offered that they could avoide legal complications by paying the company about $1200. Many student paid, not wanting to go through the greater expense and time to defend themselves. Eventually, many universities stopped cooperating with the music publishers stating that the practice amounted to harassment, since there was no technical way to prove the claims. My personal theory is that the content producers are alarmed at the level of creative work being generated on the Internet without them getting a cut. Their plan is to make things highly restrictive to prevent further competition.

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BelfastJimmy | Mar 04, 2012, 02:23 PM EST

I have tried twice to voice comments here but none have made it to the site. Apologies...this is just a test to see if I can at least sign on.

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hollabackgurl | Mar 03, 2012, 12:24 PM EST

"...The legislation will open a can of worms that ultimately harm the country's standing in the global internet industry. They pointed out that the statutory instrument will mean that issues of copyright and illegal downloads will be debated on a court-by-court basis. They say this is going to be economically unsustainable for ISPs to contest. It may also be unsustainable for internet companies that have located in Ireland. They also pointed out that isolating individual tracks and blocking content is not easy and checking and quantifying the vast array of internet services could grind the internet to a halt. “What makes this so sad, is the government is trying to tell us that at the same time, that they see Ireland as a hub for cloud computing services, which by definition are services hosting other people's content and more than other online businesses exposed to the vagaries of this S.I.," the ISPAI stated. -Siliconrepublic.com

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irishpjk | Mar 02, 2012, 10:08 PM EST

Which Irish Government Brussels or Dublin?

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Murph46 | Mar 02, 2012, 07:32 PM EST

Jam -you cannot possibly be further from the truth with your right wing tirade.This came exclusively from the liberal publishing ,and music business that are trying to protect their intellectual property,I suggest you do some homework before you further the proof of your dufussness!

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jamthecat | Mar 02, 2012, 05:36 PM EST

The right wing wants it way and will get it, come hell or high water, the people's wishes be damned.

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McNamara31 | Mar 02, 2012, 03:39 PM EST

Bad Move

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hollabackgurl | Mar 02, 2012, 03:23 PM EST

It's astounding that the Irish government have taken this action with Google, Facebook and Apple on their own doorsteps and the first two loudly crying foul.

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VonLiebenitz | Mar 02, 2012, 02:06 PM EST

The current Nazi government show their true colour,s yet again.March the blue shirts and Labour holding their coattails from dipping in the mud.

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KevinKehoe | Mar 02, 2012, 11:13 AM EST

This does not surprise me as the present Irish Goverment just like the last are Dumb and Dumber, and maybe protecting there own ass in the process. If Irish citizens post anything on the net which is anti Fianna Gael they might find themselves in court or jail.

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Murph46 | Mar 02, 2012, 11:09 AM EST

Wow -never made it to a vote in the US!

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