Ireland

[IE] Copyright Issues in Webcast

IRIS 2001-10:1/35

Marie McGonagle

School of Law, National University of Ireland, Galway

In July 2001 The Irish Times settled a copyright claim arising out of a webcast of James Joyce's novel "Ulysses". The webcast, to celebrate Bloomsday on 16 June 1998, involved a global reading of "Ulysses" over the Internet, carried on The Irish Times's website,

The period of copyright protection in Ireland formerly was fifty years. As a result, Joyce's work came out of copyright in 1991. However, Council Directive 93/98/EEC of 29 October 1993 harmonizing the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights, which harmonised copyright periods upwards to seventy years, extended the copyright in Joyce's work until 2011. Preparations for the webcast of "Ulysses" were made during the interim period, 1992-5, when the work was out of copyright. Also, the extracts given to well-known people to read on the webcast were taken from an edition of the book published during that interim period. However, the court proceedings were settled out of court, prior to the hearing, on the basis of a payment of costs and damages and agreement to a permanent injunction, which would prevent any future webcast.