cearta.ie – Page 176 – the Irish for rights

If Wired magazine were published in Ireland, would it be a periodical? Would its website be? Would the website be, even if there weren’t a magazine? And why do these musings matter? Well, they matter because only ‘periodicals’ will be subject to the Press Council proposed in the Defamation Bill, 2006; and whilst the defintion of periodical clearly covers print newspapers and magazines (such as Wired‘s offline edition), and probably covers content on websites associated with such offline editions, it probably doesn’t cover content published exclusively online by publications that look like newspapers or magazines but lack an offline edition. I think that it should.

This week, the Press Complaints Commission in the UK extended its remit to the online realm. …

Easy, PCC

11 February, 200711 December, 2012

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| Press Council

Perhaps stung by the criticism of its docile passivity in the face of the Goodman affair, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) in the UK has this week come to life, swinging into acting with at least three very important developments, covered in this post and the next two.

The first is a direct result of the fallout from the royal phone-tapping affair. This week’s Media Guardian reports that the

PCC plans to write to every newspaper and magazine editor to ask what controls they have in place to prevent the sort of “intrusive fishing expeditions” undertaken by Goodman and widely speculated to have become common practice among some Sunday tabloid journalists. It will then publish its conclusions, with possible options believed to include new best-practice guidelines and the setting up of new training courses to make journalists more aware of the code and the law.

This is very welcome, but there is more than a whiff of stable doors and bolting horses about it. …

Fate’s great bazaar

10 February, 200711 February, 2007

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| Politics

In his great poem ‘Sunday Morning‘, Louis MacNeice describes Sunday morning as ‘Fate’s great bazaar’. And tomorrow morning, Fate’s great bazaar will bring us political blogging on the television (which is marginally less silly than Irish dancing – or for that matter, blogging – on the radio). Sunday morning, 9am, is an unholy hour to be awake on a weekend morning, but if perchance you are, then you could do worse than to tune in to Sunday AM at 9am on BBC1 for a political blogging special (via Guido Fawkes and Ian Dale).

Cross-posted from Irish Election…

If voting changed anything …

10 February, 200710 February, 2007

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| Blogging

… they’d make it illegal (so said Litunanian-American anarchist-feminist Emma Goldman wikiquote | wikipedia). So, before they do, head over to the Irish Blog Awards and vote for your favourite blogs in many and various categories, including: Best Blog, Post or Humorous Post, Best Photo Blog, Group Blog, or Newcomer, Best Arts and Culture, Political, Personal, Technology, Sport and Recreation, News, Business, Specialist, or Music, Blog, Best Videocast, Podcast and Podcaster, and my personal favourite, Best Contribution to the Irish Bloggersphere. Knock yourself out.

While you’re there, vote for Lex Ferenda in Best Newcomer, and Best Specialist Blog, and for Irish Election in Best Blog, Best Group Blog, and Best News/Current Affairs Blog. More eagerly-awaited and controversial than the Oscars, the awards themselves will take place on March 3rd in the Alexander Hotel. Look out for the usual mix of prima donna nominees, over the top acceptance speeches from the winners, insincere congratulations from the losers, and terrible dress sense from everyone. I’m sure that the Hollywood gathering the previous week will be tame by comparison.…

Dublin Legal Workshop: Broadcasting Bill

9 February, 200716 January, 2009

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| Conferences, Lectures, Papers and Workshops, Digital Rights, Media and Communications

As the regular reader (there is [only]or[at least] one, according to my stats counters) of this blog will know, I am interested in the slow progress of the Broadcasting Bill, 2006 through the Houses of the Oireachtas (Parliament). For that reason, I am greatly looking forward to the next lecture in the evening stream of the Dublin Legal Workshop. Next Tuesday, 13 February, David McMunn, Director of Government, Regulatory and Legal Affairs for TV3, will give a talk entitled

The Broadcasting Bill, 2006. The Tooth Fairy – Judge,
Jury and Executioner.

It will be held in Room 11 of the School of Law, House 39, Trinity College Dublin (a map of College with directions to the School of Law is available here), at 6pm. If you’re interested, please do come along. …

Privacy law in the UK

8 February, 20079 February, 2007

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| Privacy

I recently argued here that, if the High Court in Sinnott v Carlow Nationalist refers the matter to the Supreme Court, that court should take the opportunity to clarify the tort of invasion of privacy in Irish law. It’s a mess that needs sorting. After listening to Prof Gavin Phillipson‘s paper on UK privacy law in the Dublin Legal Workshop last week, it seems to me that UK privacy law is also a mess that needs sorting, and the House of Lords (in its judicial capacity, it is the UK’s highest court) should take a similar opportunity to sort things out there.

I have been musing since Gavin’s presentation on two points which seemed to me to arise from it (that’s Gavin in the photo on the left, btw). …

For your consideration

7 February, 20078 February, 2007

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| Contract

Over on Lex Ferenda, DaithÃ has an alarming-sounding post: Postgraduate diploma in Aisle Seven. But this is neither another of the many online fake degrees, nor yet Tesco moving into the education business, selling qualifications next to the chopped tomatoes and pasta. Rather, it is the news that points earned through Tescoâ€™s Clubcard loyalty scheme can now be applied to fees at the Open University. Leaving aside questions about the privacy implications of loyalty card schemes, the power of supermarkets in our society, or even the ubiquity of Tesco, there is a very interesting issue here from the perspective of the Law of Contract.

For there to be a contract, there must be a serious agreement about a price. …

Roll up, roll up!

5 February, 20077 February, 2007

| 1 Comment

| Blogging, Irish Law, Irish Society, Politics

DaithÃ (with a hat tip to Lessig) has come up with an excellent idea for this election year, and for our next government:

We know that a lot of interesting IP and IT law and policy issues … will make their way into new Cabinet workplans.

This week, Iâ€™m calling on interested parties (interested being those (bloggers or not) with an interest in the legal and policy elements of the Internet …) to join in. Each person will be responsible for one proposal, of her or his choice … to identify an existing law (â€?lawâ€? including whatever you want it to, and specifically including European directives, as a lot of the American issues are EU competence over here), and to suggest how it could be improved / amended / replaced / etc.

Brilliant idea. Wish I’d thought of it.…