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Category: Copyright

The horrors of copyright from Dracula to Nosferatu

31 October, 202412 November, 2024
| 1 Comment
| Copyright

Dracula NosferatuAbraham “Bram” Stoker (1847–1912) was an Irish author, best known for writing the 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. Stoker drew extensively from Transylvanian folklore and history for the novel, and he gave the title character the name Dracula because he thought it meant “devil” in Romanian.

The novel was published in the United Kingdom in 1897 by Archibald Constable and Company, and in the United States in 1899 by Doubleday & McClure. To secure copyright, US law at the time required the author to deposit two copies of a book with the Copyright Office in the Library of Congress. However, in 1930, when Universal Studios purchased the movie rights, it was discovered that Stoker and Doubleday had deposited only one copy, which effectively meant that the book was in the public domain in the US. The novel and its title character have become mainstays of popular culture, and Stoker’s great grand-nephew Dacre Stoker has suggested that Stoker’s failure to comply with US copyright law contributed to the novel’s enduring status, since US writers and producers did not need to pay a licence fee to use the character. That may have been so in the US, but the opposite was the case in Europe.…

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Access to RTÉ’s archives

14 October, 202416 October, 2024
| No Comments
| Broadcasting, Copyright, CRC12 / CRC13

Yours truly at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and MediaLast Wednesday, 9 October 2024, I was at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media, for a debate on the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill 2023 (screengrab from here, left).

This succinct and welcome Bill aims to amend the Broadcasting Act 2009 to provide for greater public access to the archives of Ireland’s national public service broadcaster, Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). This is some of my opening statement (as delivered (with added links); the more extensive written version is here (pdf)):

… I was the chair of the Copyright Review Committee. Our report, Modernising Copyright, led to the enactment of the Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Law Provisions Act 2019. One of the aims of our report was to enable users to have access to, and to use, copyright material “in line with the greater public interest”, as it is put in the Bill. For this reason alone, I commend the Bill. It is a crisp Bill with two key subsections. I will make some brief comments about drafting issues.

Section 1(a) of the Bill inserts into section 89 of the Broadcasting Act 2009 a general duty on RTÉ to make archives available for inspection and publication.

…

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Copyright balance, technological protection measures, and fair use

9 September, 202413 March, 2025
| 1 Comment
| Copyright

Copyright balance: DMCA v Fair useIn a previous post, I examined the judgment of Roy J in the the Federal Court of Canada in 1395804 Ontario Ltd (Blacklock’s Reporter) v Canada (Attorney General) 2024 FC 829 (CanLII) (31 May 2024) [Blacklock’s Reporter], effectively holding that technological protection measures cannot defeat users seeking to rely on the exceptions provided in the copyright legislation. And I put it in the context of sections 370, 374 and 376 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000 (hereafter: CRRA), and of section 377 CRRA (as inserted by section 38 of the Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Law Provisions Act 2019.

There have been subsequent relevant developments, in Canada and the US, and I want to look at those developments in this post. In particular, the US development – inevitably – adds the First Amendment to the mix, which in turn raises questions about whether there are similar constitutional issues in Canada and Ireland.

First, Canada. Barry Sookman argues that the case is riddled with mistakes, that many of its findings are open to significant doubt, and that it cries out for appellate review. In reply, Howard Knoff, argues that Sookman’s arguments are against a straw man.…

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

10 June, 20249 July, 2024
| 1 Comment
| COIPLPA, Copyright, CRC12 / CRC13

Copyright balance, rightsowners v usersThe 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.…

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On the Internet, does Article 17 know you’re a dog?

5 July, 20226 July, 2022
| 3 Comments
| Copyright

4 cartoons:

On this day in 1993, the New Yorker magazine published a cartoon by Peter Steiner. A large dark dog sits at a desk in front of a computer; a smaller white dog sits on the floor beside him; the large dog says to the small one “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”.

On 14 November 2010, the Joy of Tech blog published a cartoon by Nitrozac and Snaggy. It’s very similar to Steiner’s; but, this time, the large dog is saying to the small one “It used to be that on the Internet, nobody knew you were a dog. Now, on a social network, everybody knows you’re a bitch“.

On 12 June 2013, the Joy of Tech blog published another cartoon by Nitrozac and Snaggy. It has two panels. The left panel, headed “In the 1990’s”, is a colourized version of Steiner’s original. The right panel, headed “Now”, shows two NSA agents in a control room. One says “Our metadata analysis indicates that he is definitely a brown lab”. The other says “He lives with a white and black spotted beagle-mix, and I suspect they are humping”.

On 23 February 2015, the New Yorker published a cartoon by Kaamran Hafeez.…

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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
| 3 Comments
| COIPLPA, Columba, Copyright, CRC12 / CRC13, Digital deposit, Fair use

St Columba and Copyright (cropped and modified Flickr image)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).…

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The non-implementation of the DSM Directive, and the Cathach of St Columba – updated!

9 June, 202111 June, 2021
| 3 Comments
| Columba, Copyright

Cathach of St Colmba, at RIA; via widipediaThe EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (the DSM Directive) was due to be transposed into national law by the EU’s Member States this week. Article 29(1) of the DSM Directive (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) provides:

Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by 7 June 2021. …

That was last Monday. Had it been Tuesday, it would have been an appropriate date for a copyright Directive to be brought into force in Ireland, as that was the anniversary of the death of St Columba (also known as St Colmcille) in 597 (I have marked this anniversary on a previous occasion on this blog). As Charleton J commented in EMI Records v Eircom Ltd [2010] 4 IR 349, [2010] IEHC 108 (16 April 2010) [28]:

There is fundamental right to copyright in Irish Law. This has existed as part of Irish legal tradition since the time of Saint Colmcille. He is often quoted in connection with the aphorism: le gach bó a buinín agus le gach leabhar a chóip (to each cow its calf and to every book its copy).

…

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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

Geek & Poke, Copyright and Academic FreedomIn 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.…

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Hi there! Thanks for dropping by. I’m Eoin O’Dell, and this is my blog: Cearta.ie – the Irish for rights.


“Cearta” really is the Irish word for rights, so the title provides a good sense of the scope of this blog.

In general, I write here about private law, free speech, and cyber law; and, in particular, I write about Irish law and education policy.


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