Is The Pen Mightier than the Sword? Photo: (Wiki) – BIC crystal pen Esperanto: Globkrajon, Author: @ Trounce, 26th March 2008 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:03-BICcristal2008-03-26.jpg Junior Minister’s Sean Sherlock’s recent SOPA initiative was an attempt to amend the 2000 Copyright Act by means of copying the relevant wording from the 2001/29/EC Directive in the form of [...]
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Written by Foras Teamhrach
Minister Sherlock has stated that the wording of the controversial statutory instrument reinforcing online copyright laws will not be changed and would proceed. The Irish Government was “not trying to impose something here” and that comparisons with the SOPA legislation in the US were “not based in fact”, adding that the SI was merely [...]
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Written by Foras Teamhrach
BBC News – Kader Arif, the European Parliament’s rapporteur for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), resigned over the issue on Friday. He said he had witnessed "never-before-seen manoeuvres" by officials preparing the treaty. On Thursday, 22 EU member states including the UK signed the agreement. The treaty still needs to be ratified by the [...]
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Written by Foras Teamhrach
Guardian – “Google and other search engines "overwhelmingly" direct music fans to illegal copies of copyrighted tracks online, a coalition of entertainment industry groups has told the government. In a confidential document obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, lobbying groups for the major rights holders claimed Google and Microsoft‘s Bing are making it [...]
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Written by Foras Teamhrach
Seán Sherlock has said he remains “committed” to implementing new internet copyright legislation . Speaking in the Dáil today, Sherlock stated that as a member state of the EU, Ireland needed to implement the directives laid down by the EU, which allowed copyright holders to take measures to ensure their intellectual property was not [...]
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Written by Foras Teamhrach
Ireland is to sign an international agreement which promises a major international crackdown on the trade of counterfeit goods – and illegal internet file sharing. Irish representatives will sign the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) at a ceremony today as will representatives from each of the other 26 European Union member states, and the EU [...]
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Written by Foras Teamhrach
“Millions of people signed online petitions Wednesday against two Internet censorship bills currently under consideration by the US Congress. The petitions were driven by appeals from thousands of web sites, some of which, including Wikipedia and Reddit, shut down for the day in protest. The protests and petitions were aimed against the Stop Online [...]
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Written by Foras Teamhrach
The International Students for Social Equality is holding a public meeting on Tuesday, February 7 to discuss the Richard O’Dwyer case and other attacks on democratic rights. Meeting details follow this statement. The International Students for Social Equality calls on all students, young people, academics and workers to oppose the extradition of Richard O’Dwyer to [...]
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Written by Foras Teamhrach
“Any day now, the Government of Ireland will sign a statutory instrument that will give courts the power to grant orders to ISPs and other entities suspected of infringing copyright. This will be done at the stroke of a minister’s pen and without any parliamentary debate. Forces of protest are being assembled in the [...]
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Written by Foras Teamhrach
The Government has “no intention” of introducing legislation that would restrict the freedom of Irish internet users, the Junior Minister at the Dept of Jobs, Enterprise Innovation Sean Sherlock has said. Sherlock said that it was “just not true” that websites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube could be blocked under a new statutory judgement [...]
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