Author: Eoin

Dr Eoin O'Dell is a Fellow and Associate Professor of Law at Trinity College Dublin.

I remember this one time, at BarCamp

| 14 Comments
| Blogging

I’m not the first, and certainly won’t be the last, to wax enthusiastic and lyrical on the triumph that was last Saturday’s BarCamp Dublin (where I spotted the iso-phone, left). Thanks a million to Joe, Elly, Paul and Eoghan; links seem an inadequate way to express my gratitude, but flowers might be inappropriate, so the adulation of the masses will have to do guys. By way of roundup, EuropeanIrish has a good collection of surveys and reviews (and I hope that as traffic grows over the next while, he’ll update the message as a good resource about the day).

After my own presentation, I could relax and enjoy the day: coffee, sandwiches, chat, and high quality content. …

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And so, to BarCamp Dublin

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| Blogging, Media and Communications

picture-4.pngFulfilling a promise rashly made ages ago, I spoke at BarCamp Dublin (blog | wiki) in the Digital Exchange on Crane Street in the Digital Hub (maps here and here) yesterday morning.

Once I had surmounted the usual technological glitches, this is me (click on the image for a bigger version, if you dare!) in full flow trying to cover the following issues:


Eoin at BarCamp Defamation, Privacy,
Obscenity, Hate Speech, Contempt,
Copyright, Threatening Speech,
Workplace speech issues,
Bloggers as Journalists,
and Soft Controls

For what they’re worth, my powerpoint slides are here, but were no more than a starting point for discussion (and anyway, TJ’s already done it much better here; see Sarah’s reaction here).

Update (26 April 2007): EFF have recently updated their legal guide for bloggers; whilst in Monday’s Media Guardian (hat tip: Media Law Prof Blog), Alice Gould writes about The blogosphere, the law and the printed word:

Anyone wanting to publish material posted on social networking sites, or other sites, needs to check the site’s terms and conditions to see who owns the material and whether it can legally be reproduced.

Update (4 May 2007): 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know (hat tip: Freedom to Differ)

Update (17 May 2007): I’ve just found this podcast of the event in which TJ delivered the presentation mentioned above.…

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Fair Use, again – briefly

| 4 Comments
| Copyright, Fair use

'Scales of Justice', a public domain IP image, via wikipediaI have on this blog called for a thoroughgoing re-examination of the current balance between reward and innovation in copyright law by the enactment of a broad legislative right of fair use. Via What if . . . and Copyright on madisonian.net (Mike Madison) and What Ifs? Copyright Law III on 43(B)log (Rebecca Tushnet, personal site; Georgetown site), I learn that Abraham Drassinower, of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, in a paper entitled “What if copyright were really about authors?” at the What If, and Other Alternative Intellectual Property and Cyberlaw Stories IP Symposium argued:

If authorship were central, copyright would be less extensive. There would be no grounds for liability for copying for personal use, and the defense of fair dealing/fair use would not be a mere exception. It would be a user right.

Great stuff, this! (At the link above, Mike Madison explored similar territory). It bears repeating: in my view, fair use ought to be a right, and not merely an exception, exemption, license, or privilege.…

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Responsible Headline

| 2 Comments
| Irish Society, Media and Communications, Press Council

picture-7.pngYesterday saw another milestone in the development of responsible journalism in Ireland. Joining the Press Council (blogged here) on the roster is Headline, which, according to its website:

… is Ireland’s national media monitoring programme, working to promote responsible and accurate coverage of mental health and suicide related issues within the Irish media.

Managed by Schizophrenia Ireland, Headline was set up by the Health Service Executive‘s National Office for Suicide Prevention as part of Reach Out National Strategy for Action on Suicide Prevention (pdf). I learn from a piece by Carl O’Brien (who had launched the Headline website a fortnight ago with George Hook) in today’s Irish Times (sub req’d) that this important and welcome development is supported by the NUJ. Whether or not the media accept the prevasiveness of their influence, the fact that the initiative has the support of the NUJ is a welcome exercise of responsibility on their part.…

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Holocaust Denial in the EU

| 7 Comments
| Freedom of Expression, Media and Communications

Holocuast Memorial Day logoThe Holocaust Memorial Day Trust will be holding its second annual conference on Monday 30th April at the Town Hall in Leeds, England (conference details pdf here). No doubt there will be much discussion of the merits of legislation against holocaust denial. The German proposal in January to have the EU make holocuast denial a criminal offence as a matter of EU law (blogged here by me, and with great insight by Section 14 and Liberal England) was debated in the Parliament in March, and was adopted by the Council of Ministers yesterday …

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Criminal Libel in Mexico and Ireland

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| Defamation, Media and Communications

Eagle from The Herald, Mexico, via mexiconews.com.mxIreland is not the only country where defamation law is undergoing reform. I learn from Media Law Prof Blog that libel is no longer a criminal offence in Mexico:

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has signed into law a federal bill that decriminalizes libel.

The new legislation changes the centre of gravity of Mexican libel law from criminal to civil, so that defamation actions will in future be civil disputes between a plaintiff and a defendant, rather than criminal matters.

In countries such as Mexico in the Civilian tradition, defamation is often a criminal rather than a civil matter; whereas, in countries such as Ireland in the Common Law tradition, it is usually a civil matter. Nevertheless, even in common law countries, defamation can occasionally have criminal consequences; and there is still a crime of libel at Irish law (see, for example, the Law Reform Commission‘s Consultation Paper (html | pdf) and Report (html | pdf) on the Crime of Libel). However, Part 5 of the Defamation Bill, 2006 (Department of Justice | Oireachtas (pdf)) proposes to abolish the crime of libel (section 34) and replace it with a considerably more circumscribed crime of publication of gravely harmful statements (section 35).…

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Blogging on the Radio, closer to home

| 2 Comments
| Blogging, Media and Communications

Orla Barry, via NewstalkA phenomenon goes mainstream when it starts popping up on the radio. I discussed the “serious” BBC treatment here. But now, Dublin-based quasi-national radio station Newstalk 106, seems to be making a habit of it. There’s Karlin Lillington‘s residency (Chips with That!) on Geroge Hook. A few weeks ago, Orla Barry (pictured left) interviewed Kate Silver about her 31 days to find a valentines day date blog-project; Kate blogged about it here; and then even came to Dublin in search of her elusive valentine.

Today, Orla was at it again, with a guest (whose name I didn’t catch at the time; sorry, guest) Cauvery Madhavan (blog | bio) in studio who; Cauvery had spent a week on the blogosphere; and they discussed some of the more interesting blogs the guest she had found. The interview discussed three four in particular: that of a US stormchaser; that of a young gay man in India resisting family pressure to get married; and that of a student in Virginia Tech who blogged live about this week’s terrible events there; and on the radio, she mentioned her favourite Irish blog: Donncha O Caoimh’s Holy Schmoly, but it doesn’t seem to have made it onto her list on the Newstalk website.…

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Workshop future

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| Conferences, Lectures, Papers and Workshops

Future attraction, coming soon to the Dublin Legal Workshop, hosted by the School of Law, Trinity College Dublin.

Prof Richard Fallon, via Harvard Law School websiteIn association with the Harvard Law School Association of Ireland, in the evening stream of the Workshop, on Tuesday, 15 May 2007, at 6.30pm, in Room 21, House 39 (map here), Professor Richard Fallon of Harvard Law School will deliver a paper entitled:

Reflections on the Morality and Legality of Coercive Interrogation by the US.

The session will be charied by the Attorney General, Rory Brady; and there will be brief responses by The Hon Ronan Keane, former Chief Justice of Ireland, and Dr Maurice Manning, President, Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC).…

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