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Category: Politics

Fair Use – Recalibrating the balance in Fair Dealing

27 March, 20073 June, 2017
| 17 Comments
| Copyright, Fair use, Irish Law, James Joyce, Politics

'Scales of Justice', a public domain IP image, via wikipediaThis is a call to arms; or at least, a call for legislation which would radically recast EU copyright law.

Intellectual property law and policy are all about innovation, both encouraging it and protecting its fruits. But these are potentially opposing, perhaps even incompatible, goals: if we reward one innovator with a monopoly over the fruits of the innovation, prohibiting others’ use of those fruits, then we risk preventing the next round of innovation. The challenge to law-makers is to strike the an appropriate balance between reward and innovation, by pitching the length of the monopoly at the right level, both in the breadth of its coverage and the length of its term, beyond which others might also use it.

The story of copyright provides a good example of this dilemma. …

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“You can’t fire me; I’ve got tenure!”

25 March, 200722 May, 2010
| 5 Comments
| Academic Freedom, Cinema, television and theatre, Politics, Tenure, Universities

83m.jpgLast night, MGM movies showed the 1984 movie Teachers, about a lawyer who sued her high school for graduating an illiterate pupil. It starred JoBeth Williams as the lawyer; Nick Nolte as the idealistic but frustrated and jaded ageing hippie teacher; and Judd Hirsch as the pragmatic head teacher just trying to get through with the pupils he’s got (for a more recent, also iconic, role, see here (Daithí)). A fine supporting cast included Ralph Macchio (‘wax on, wax off‘) as the tough kid Nolte was trying to reach; Laura Dern as the kid Nolte helps to have an abortion after another teacher gets her pregnant; and Morgan Freeman (with an extraordinary hairstyle almost as much a member of the cast in its own right as Kevin Costner‘s in Robin Hood. Prince of Thieves) as the school’s lawyer. There is a perceptive review here. Among the many Hollywood-sardonicisms in the script, the large, underfunded high school is named for John F Kennedy; and the illiterate graduate (whom we never meet) is called John Calvin(!). The case settled (JoBeth Williams’ boss, William Hill (in the key scene, he is world-weary, wearing a waistcoat, and sitting behind a desk – for all the world as he would appear in TV’s Law & Order) did the deal, much against her wishes).…

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Filibustering the Defamation Bill? Surely not?

23 March, 200724 September, 2008
| No Comments
| Cinema, television and theatre, Defamation, Irish Law, Irish Society, Media and Communications, Politics

Poster for 'Mr Smith Goes to Washington' via AOLFilibuster: (noun) an action such as a prolonged speech that obstructs progress in a legislative assembly while not technically contravening the required procedures.

The word originates in words of piracy, such as the French ‘flibustier’, the Spanish ‘filibustero’ and the Dutch ‘vrijbuiter’, all etymologically equivalent to ‘freebooter’. The 1939 movie ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington‘, directed by Frank Capra (nominated for two oscars for this movie), stars Jimmy Stewart, in his patented role of a young naif, this time oscar-nominated as a newly elected Junior Senator Jefferson Smith. The climax of the movie is a filibuster staged by Mr Smith in the Senate so that there would be enough time to expose the corruption of his mentor, Senator Joseph Harrison Paine, played by the also oscar-nominated Claude Rains.

I have already commented on the slow progress of the Defamation Bill, 2006 (Department of Justice | Oireachtas (pdf)) and the number of red herrings in the debate, and concluded that it had become increasinlgy unlikely that the Bill would be enacted before the election. Now, from yesterday’s Order of Business in the Seanad (html | pdf to follow | Irish Times report (sub req’d)), a cynical explanation: a filibuster!…

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Trócaire revise ads in face of BCI ban

9 March, 200720 December, 2008
| 17 Comments
| advertising, Freedom of Expression, Irish Law, Irish Society, Media and Communications, Politics

BCI logoTrócaire have just posted a statement on their website, under the headline “BCI upholds its decision on Trócaire advert”, in which they say that they have agreed to revise their controversial radio and television advertisments:

Trócaire has been informed today by the BCI that it is confirming it’s initial decision in relation to Trócaire’s Lenten advertisement on gender equality, deeming that the campaign is toward a political end.

The BCI has proposed an amendment to the script of the broadcast as follows:
“Support Trócaire to help end gender inequality.”

The original script stated:
“Support Trócaire’s Lenten Campaign to help end gender inequality.”

Despite this change Trócaire is satisfied that the three elements of our Lenten campaign namely, fundraising, awareness raising and campaigning on UN Resolution 1325 [link] (including the online petition [link]) are still fully intact. All these activities continue as before.

…

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Plans for an Irish Court of Appeal?

9 March, 200710 July, 2013
| 7 Comments
| Irish Court of Appeal, Irish Court of Appeal, Irish Law, Irish Society, judges, Politics

According to an article by Paul Cullen on the front page of today’s Irish Times, there are moves under way to create a new Court of Appeal for Ireland. This can only be welcome news, both for litigants and for judges.

Even though the nine judges of the Supreme Court can sit now in divisions of three, it can still take up to two years or more for an appeal to be heard; and a Court of Appeal that relieved that backlog of cases and allowed litigants’ appeals to be heard and decided more quickly would undoubtedly be good news for litigants. Moreover, too many cases come to the Court to allow it to do its work as a Supreme Court: at present, it hears more than 300 cases a year, compared with no more than 100 in the US Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Canada, the High Court of Australia, and the House of Lords (which, in its judicial capacity, is the UK’s highest court). In those jurisdictions, there is an automatic right to appeal to Court of Appeal level from cases at High Court level, so litigants always get the option of an appeal; but there is an appeal from Court of Appeal level to the court of final appeal only in cases where that latter court is persuaded that there are special or exceptional reasons for the appeal to be heard.…

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Political Advertising, the BCI, and Trócaire

7 March, 200714 September, 2020
| 15 Comments
| advertising, Freedom of Expression, Irish Society, Media and Communications, Politics

Trocaire logo, from their siteTrócaire is the official overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland. It runs several campaigns challenging the root causes of poverty and injustice. And every year during Lent (BBC | wikipedia), to raise both much need funds and public consciousness about its work, it runs a Lenten campaign, distributing collection boxes through churches and so on to schools and homes in the hope that the boxes will be filled during Lent and their contents donated to Trócaire after Easter. The image on this year’s box is discussed here by Brian Greene); and the advertising campaign that goes with it focuses on gender inequality to promote equal rights for women and men around the world. You can view the television advertisment here. However, that advertising campaign is now getting Trócaire into hot water. Various newspapers report this morning (Irish Examiner | Irish Independent | Irish Times) that the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has banned these advertisments. …

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Café Bars and the Privacy Bill

17 February, 200717 February, 2007
| 5 Comments
| Irish Law, Irish Society, Politics, Privacy

Q: What do these two things have in common?
A: They’re both in the news today for the same reason.

Two short quotes. The first one is from the list of motions for the Progressive Democrats‘ national conference today:

Motion 19
Conference calls for a review of the proposed privacy legislation in the Party’s General Election Manifesto in particular to avoid the dangers of muzzling the press through court injunction.
Dublin South East

Motion 20
Conference calls on Government to reactivate the proposal for café bars.
Dublin South East

The second is from a story on the RTE news website:

The PD conference in Wexford has voted overwhelmingly for the reactivation of party leader Michael McDowell’s café bar proposals. … The conference also voted in favour of a review of proposed Privacy legislation.

I’d say that the delegates from Dublin South East (the constituency of Michael McDowell, PD Party Leader, and Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister for Justice) have set several cats among several pigeons with these motions. We’ll have to wait and see whether these policies make it into the forthcoming election manifesto (and any subsequent programme for government).

(Thanks to Daithí for tipping me off about this (offblog)).…

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Anyone can get old …

17 February, 200720 June, 2007
| 4 Comments
| Irish Society, Politics

older-people.jpg… all you have to do is live long enough. This quote has been ascribed to Groucho Marx. Goverments too grow old. And when age creeps upon them, they make promises to secure re-election. Mary Harney, the Minister for Health and Children, and former leader of the Progressive Democrats (the PDs) (a small, right-of-centre, political party) has just called for an Ombusdman for Older People at that party’s annual conference in Wexford. She expects (expects? well, she should know!) that a commitment to introduce legislation to this effect in the first year of a new term in government will feature in the party’s forthcoming election manifesto. It is to be modelled on the office of the Ombudsman for Children, which was established by the Ombudsman for Children Act, 2002, and, according to Harney

will provide a focused, statutory office to be an advocate for older people, as well as providing a dedicated service for redress beyond existing organisations. This new office will be a new means to empower and respect older people accessing health and public services. …

It is one thing to establish the office. It is quite another to take it seriously. …

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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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