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The commercial division of the High Court decided on 23 March 2010 that a preliminary ruling should be sought from the European Court of Justice on the interpretation of Articles 8 and 10 of Directive 92/100/EC on rental right and lending right and on certain rights related to copyright in the field of intellectual property, as codified by Directive 2006/115/EC. The case was taken by PPI, a licensing body which acts on behalf of phonogram producers who hold rights in sound recordings. The central issue is whether section 97 of the Irish Copyright Act 2000 is contrary to Ireland’s obligations pursuant...

The Irish High Court on 16 April 2010 approved a settlement agreed in earlier litigation (January 2009) between a number of record companies (EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner) and Eircom, an Internet service provider which has about 40% of the market share. The settlement provided for a three strike approach to dealing with copyright infringement. On first detection a notice from Eircom would inform the subscribers that they had been detected infringing copyright; on a second infringement, they would receive a warning that unless they desisted they would be disconnected from the service; and finally,...

According to the Arts Council, Ireland has the largest per capita cinema-going population in the EU. However, the choice of film in Ireland has been largely confined to mainstream commercial cinema. In 2007 there were only 15 digital screens in Ireland. In April 2008 a report entitled “Digital Cinema in Ireland - A Review of Current Possibilities” was published. It was commissioned by the Cultural Cinema Consortium, which is a joint initiative of the Arts Council of Ireland and the Irish Film Board. Since then, the Consortium has embarked on a project to roll out digital cinema equipment in arthouse...

The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) was required by the Broadcasting Act 2001 to draft and review every three years a Children’s Advertising Code. The resulting code came into operation in January 2005 and was reviewed in 2008. In July 2009, BCI published a “Statement of Outcomes”, which documents the process used in undertaking the statutory review and details the BCI’s decisions regarding those parts of the Code that will not be revised and those parts that may be subject to revision following further consultation in 2009 and 2010. The rules contained in the 2005 Code were set out under...

In September 2009, shortly before its demise and the setting up of the new Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI), the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) published rules on advertising and teleshopping daily and hourly limits. Such rules had been in operation for many years and were enforced via BCI’s contracts with its licensed broadcasters. BCI was required to draft such rules under s.19(3) of the Broadcasting Act 2001. In publishing the rules in September 2009, BCI, according to its Chairman, was simply formalising long standing practice and bringing to a conclusion BCI’s responsibility...