Legal Environment

 

 

Intellectual Property

 

Ireland has taken a regulatory approach to intellectual property, passing a comprehensive Copyright Act, which contains extensive provisions relating to the infringement intellectual property rights.  It covers not only the traditional areas that are dealt within copyright situations, but also takes into account the impact that rapid improvement in technology has had on the area.

 

 

Piracy Rate

 

According to the Business Software Alliance (BSA), the software piracy rate in Ireland is 42%, up 1% from 2001.  BSA interprets this piracy rate as resulting in revenue losses of almost $40 million for the Irish software industry. A piracy rate of 42% translates into almost one in every two business software programs installed in Ireland is an illegal copy.[1]

 

 

Copyright

 

There is no requirement in Irish or EU law to register copyright.  Once a work qualifies for copyright protection, copyright subsists in it.  Copyright law protects literary works, artistic works, musical works, films and sound recordings, among others.

 

Computer programs are protected as literary works.  Accordingly, a computer program in its source code, object code and any other form is protected by copyright, provided that it is original.  The standard of originality required is low and essentially requires that the program is not a reproduction of another program.

 

Copyright will subsist under Irish copyright law for the lifetime of the author and 70 years after the author’s death, regardless of the date when the work was published or otherwise lawfully made available to the public.

 

The Irish Copyright and Related Rights Act of 2000 updated Irish copyright law to take account of many changes that have taken place since the Copyright Act, 1963.  The Act consolidates most of the previous legislation and implements a number of EU Directives.  The Act attempts, in its terminology to be as technology-neutral as possible, so as to ensure certainty in the law in the future.[2]

 

ICANN Participation

 

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the non-profit corporation that was formed to assume responsibility for the Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol parameter assignment, domain name system management, and root server system management functions previously performed under U.S. Government contract by IANA and other entities.

 

The domain registry for the country code TLD “.it” was originally assigned to the University College Dublin by ICANN with the approval of the national administration.[3]  The responsibility for the registry is currently with the Ireland Domain Registry (IEDR), which is not a governing or regulatory body but a private sector non-profit company, and provides the “.ie” TLD as a public service.[4]  The IEDR applied to have the “.ie” TLD re-delegated to it from ICANN, and as of October 9, 2002, the Irish Department of Communications has not yet decided whether to re-delegate the “.ie” TLD to a private sector company by open competition or to a designated public body.  Under section 31 of the Electronic Commerce Act, the Minister of Public Enterprise has the ultimate control over the regulation of domain names.

 

 

Digital Signature Laws

 

Digital signature laws are contained in the Electronic Commerce Act of 2000.  The Act permits the use of digital signatures provided that the person of a public body or the public body requesting the signature consents to the use of an electronic signature and it is in accordance with information technology and procedural requirements.  The law requires that any digital signature be an advanced electronic signature based on a qualified certificate issued by an accredited certification service provider or that it is created by a secured signature creation device.  Electronic signatures are also permitted where they are required to be witnessed provided that the document to be signed indicates that it is to be witnessed, that the signature to be witnessed and the witnesses’ signature are advanced electronic signatures based on a qualified certificate.[5]

 

 

Limitations on Personal Data by Business

 

The Data Protection Act of 1988 governs the use of personal data in Ireland.  The Act has been supplemented by a number of European Directives that address the processing of individuals data and free movement of such data.[6]

 

 

Censorship

 

A working group investigating illegal and harmful use of the Internet recommended a self-regulatory system by service providers rather than censorship to tackle problems of illegal use of the Internet.[7]  The Irish Government established an Internet Advisory Board as a non-statutory body to research issues involving the Internet and provide reports to the government on any findings.[8]