cearta.ie – Page 28 – the Irish for rights

In Northern Ireland, the Minister for Finance has just published a Review of the Law of Defamation, prepared for it by Andrew Scott (Associate Professor of Law, LSE). Prof Scott had prepared a consultation paper for the Northern Ireland Law Commission (NILC) in November 2014. The consultation period closed on 20 February 2015. The NILC itself closed on 31 March 2015. So Prof Scott’s final Report (pdf) was submitted directly to the Ministry for Finance, which has just published it. The Report builds on the work of the NILC, draws on the consultation responses that it received, assesses the recent experience of the law of defamation in England and Wales under the Defamation Act 2013, and sets out recommendations for reform of the law of defamation in Northern Ireland. Most of the recommendations require legislation by the Northern Ireland Assembly, so a Bill to this effect is included as Appendix 1 to the Report. A second draft Bill that would merely emulate the 2013 Act in Northern Irish law is included as Appendix 2.

The Report recommends that, to a significant extent, measures equivalent to the provisions of the 2013 Act should be introduced into Northern Irish law. However, one of the substantial changes from the 2013 Act relates to the proposed new defence of honest opinion.…

Copyright and the National Anthem – Bonus Links

19 July, 201624 September, 2016

| 3 Comments

| Cinema, television and theatre, Copyright, National Anthem

My last three posts (here, here, here) have looked at some copyright issues around the national anthem. Their immediate context was Senator Mark Daly‘s National Anthem (Protection of Copyright and Related Rights) (Amendment) (No 2) Bill 2016 (effectively reviving a Bill that he had introduced into the last Seanad earlier in the year). To provide a little lighter reading on the topic, here are 4 sets of bonus links about the copyright, the anthem, or both.

Bonus 1: Alex Marshall (blog | twitter), author of Republic or Death!: Travels in Search of National Anthems (Penguin | Amazon), writing in the Irish Times (h/t Alex’s blog), put “The Soldier’s Song” into the context of other national anthems. It’s a very entertaining piece. While he bemoans the relative obscurity of Peader Kearney and Patrick Heeney, he consigns Liam Ó Rinn to oblivion – he finishes the piece with the first line of “Amhrán na bhFiann”, but he doesn’t name-check Ó Rinn at all!

Bonus 2: I was on the the Marian Finucane show on RTE Radio 1 the Sunday morning before last (listen here), on The Last Word with Matt Cooper on TodayFM the following Monday evening (listen here), and on the Shaun Doherty Show on Highland Radio the following Wednesday morning (listen here until the end of the week).…

Copyright and the National Anthem – preventing a tangled future, avoiding another gap of danger

13 July, 201614 October, 2017

| 7 Comments

| Censorship, Copyright, National Anthem

A national anthem is a hymn or song expressing patriotic sentiment, from prayers for a monarch, to allusions to nationally important uprisings, to expressions of national feeling. It is usually recognised by a nation’s government as the official national song, though it often emerges by convention through use by the people. “Kimigayo” is the Japanese national anthem, and its lyrics are the oldest text of a national anthem in the world, dating from an anonymous ninth century poem (though the anthem was not formally legislatively established until 1999). The oldest musical setting of an anthem still in use is the “Wilhelmus“, the Dutch national anthem (an early version of which is pictured above left). It was written between 1568 and 1572 during the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule; and, although it was the de facto Dutch anthem for almost four centuries thereafter, it was only officially adopted in 1932.

Given their antiquity, there can be no copyright issues with the Japanese or Dutch anthems. The Irish national anthem, on the other hand, is a different story. In my previous two posts (here and here), I sought to unravel the fascinating but tangled story of its copyright, some of which I discussed on the Marian Finucane show on RTE Radio 1 last Sunday morning (listen here) and on The Last Word with Matt Cooper on TodayFM on Monday evening (listen here).…

Copyright and the National Anthem; unravelling a tangled past, avoiding a gap of danger – II – Amhrán na bhFiann

12 July, 201624 September, 2016

| 6 Comments

| Copyright, National Anthem

Most states have national anthems. Just as states come in all shapes and sizes, so there is a great variety in anthems. Some (such as Spain) have no words at all; others, (in states with multiple national languages, such as South Africa) are multi-lingual.

Given that Article 8 of the Irish Constitution provides that the Irish language is the first official language of the State, and that the English language is recognised as a second official language, it is unsurprising that the national anthem comes in both official languages. However, the story of the emergence of both versions is not straightforward. In my previous post, I discussed “The Soldier’s Song”, the music and English language version of the national anthem. In this post, I want to discuss “Amhrán na bhFiann”, the Irish language version of the anthem. The stories are fascinating but tangled; and, as I said in my previous post, I discussed some of them on the Marian Finucane show on RTE Radio 1 last Sunday morning (listen here). Since then, I was also The Last Word with Matt Cooper on TodayFM yesterday evening (listen here). In both cases, I was discussing Senator Mark Daly‘s National Anthem (Protection of Copyright and Related Rights) (Amendment) Bill 2016 (reviving a Bill that he had introduced into the last Seanad earlier in the year).…

Copyright and the National Anthem; unravelling a tangled past, avoiding a gap of danger – I – The Soldier’s Song

11 July, 20162 November, 2017

| 6 Comments

| Copyright, National Anthem

I was on the Marian Finucane show on RTE Radio 1 yesterday morning (listen here), discussing copyright in the National Anthem. The immediate context of the discussion was Senator Mark Daly‘s National Anthem (Protection of Copyright and Related Rights) (Amendment) Bill 2016 (reviving a Bill that he had introduced into the last Seanad earlier in the year). The story of the copyright in the national anthem is a fascinating one, with many legal twists and turns, which I will discuss in this post and the next (update: this post and the next were originally one post; but I have divided that post into two; in this post I discuss the copyright issues around the music and the English language version of the words of the anthem; in the next post, I will discuss the issues around the Irish language version). Once I have brought that story of these various versions of the anthem up to date, I will discuss the possible impact of Senator Daly’s Bill in a further post.

Working together in 1907, the music of the national anthem was composed by Patrick Heeney (1881-1911) and the English lyrics of “The Soldier’s Song” were composed by Peadar Kearney (1883-1942) [His first draft, written on copybook paper, sold at auction in 2006 for €760,000].…

Privacy in the Digital Age – Is it Time for a New Paradigm?

6 July, 201622 July, 2016

| 1 Comment

| Conferences, Lectures, Papers and Workshops, Privacy

There will be a discussion of

Privacy in the Digital Age – Is it Time for a New Paradigm?

in the Trinity Long Room Hub, next Wednesday, 13 July 2016, from 3:00pm to 5:00pm.

The speakers will be Dr Jyn Schultze-Melling (Director for Privacy Policy, Europe, Facebook) and Dr TJ McIntyre (Lecturer in Law, UCD; Chairman, Digital Rights Ireland). They will speak for no more than 30mins each; and there will be plenty of time for discussion. The event will be chaired by Joan Mulvihill (CEO, Irish Internet Association). …

How soon will the government approve copyright reform?

5 July, 20166 July, 2016

| 2 Comments

| Copyright, CRC12 / CRC13

A recent discussion in the Seanad suggests that a copyright reform Bill will be brought to government very soon. The discussion focussed on the need for efficient enforcement of IP rights in Irish courts, but it was placed in the broader context of copyright reform in general, and the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation promised to bring a full package of copyright reform proposals to Government “before the summer recess”. That is due at the end of this week, which means that the copyright reform Bill would have to have been considered by the Government at today’s meeting. But there is nothing on the websites of the Department of the Taoiseach or the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to suggest that it was discussed or approved today. Nevertheless, the discussion in the Seanad is suggestive that we will see the government’s reform proposals very soon. Copyright reform is yet another step closer. I greatly look forward to its arrival.

The discussion arose from the following question posed by Senator Ivana Bacik on the Commencement of the Seanad on Wednesday, 29 June 2016:

The need for the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to inform the House when she proposes to implement the recommendation of the Copyright Review Committee in its report Modernising Copyright, published in October 2013, concerning the extension of the small claims procedure in the District Court to include intellectual property claims up to the value of €15,000, as provided for within the draft Statutory Instrument prepared by the Committee.

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