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In December 2000, the Audiovisual Federation of IBEC (the Irish Employers' organisation) published its annual report for 1999. It concluded that the Irish film industry is in the doldrums and losing competitiveness against the British industry. Key recommendations of the 1999 Report on the Strategic Development of the Irish Film and Television Industry 2000-2010 (see IRIS 1999-8: 12), it said, had not yet been implemented. There was a significant increase in Irish expenditure on feature films and major television dramas but a fall in expenditure on independent television productions. A decrease...

In July 2000, Ireland enacted legislation dealing with electronic commerce (See IRIS 2000-8: 11). The Electronic Commerce Act 2000 is now in force and will form the basis for further participation by Ireland in the new regulatory framework for electronic communications and services proposed by the European Commission. The Irish telecommunications market was deregulated on 1 December 1998 (see IRIS 1999-3: 14), and the Minister for Public Enterprise has welcomed the European Commission’s proposal to “unbundle the local loop”, as it will provide an opportunity to increase competition and benefit...

After lengthy delays, the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 has finally been enacted. The delays were mainly due to the large number of proposed amendments to the draft legislation that was published in 1999 (See IRIS 1999-5: 11). The Act implements various recent EC Directives and anticipates forthcoming ones. It also fulfils Ireland's international obligations as a signatory of the TRIPs Agreement 1994 and the WIPO Treaties of 1996. It is a complex and comprehensive piece of legislation, being over 200 pages long. New provisions in the Act include rental and lending rights, and copyright...

New legislation on electronic commerce (See IRIS 2000-4: 13) was enacted in July 2000. Using a unique signing key and digital certificate, the President of Ireland digitally signed the new legislation into law. The Electronic Commerce Act 2000 is designed to make Ireland one of the first jurisdictions to have a formal set of laws regulating e-commerce. It is intended to transpose into Irish law the Electronic Signatures Directive 1999/93/EC, as well as certain articles of the draft Electronic Commerce Directive. Many sections of the new Act are based on the Model Law on Electronic Commerce published...

Under the Freedom of Information Act 1997, members of the public have the right to obtain access to official information to the greatest extent possible consistent with the public interest and the right to privacy. The Act first came into force for Government departments in 1998. It has been progressively extended to include various public bodies, most recently RTÉ (the national broadcaster), to which the Act applies from 1 May 2000. Members of the public are now entitled to request access to documents and records held in RTÉ (in addition to the information that RTÉ has already made freely available...