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The Report of the Strategic Development of the Irish Film and Television Industry 2000-2010 was published in August. The Review Group, which drew up the Report, included representatives from Irish film and broadcasting organisations, educational institutes, government departments and the business and legal sectors. The Review Group carried out an objective evaluation of the effectiveness of the existing schemes and incentives for developing the Irish film and television industry, examined the fundamental issues facing the industry, and formulated a strategic plan for the future of the industry...

The Working Group on a Courts Commission was established by the Minister for Justice to carry out a wide-ranging review of the Irish courts. The Final Report of the Working Group, which was completed in November 1998, has now been published. Some of the recommendations made by the Working Group are of particular relevance to the media. Regarding the question of information and access to court documents, the Working Group made a number of recommendations. A Courts Information Office should be set up to facilitate media liaison (inter alia). Basic facilities for journalists should be available in...

Copyright in Ireland is still governed by the Copyright Act 1963 (as amended). However, new legislation which will replace that Act almost in its entirety has now been published. The Copyright and Related Rights Bill 1999 updates the law. It implements various recent EU 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. New provisions in the Bill include rental and lending rights, and copyright protection for databases and cable programmes. The Bill also introduces into Irish...

In a case decided at the end of 1997, but not yet reported, the Irish High Court said that Telecom Éireann (the state telecommunications body) was unjustified in withdrawing subscribers' telephone numbers. Here the defendant had withdrawn the use of eight of the plaintiff's telephone numbers and refused to allocate any additional numbers, in the belief that the plaintiff was engaged in brokering numbers. Although this could justify the decision to withdraw the numbers, the Court said that the low level of usage of the numbers could not be a basis for such withdrawal. The plaintiffs were engaged...

In a recent case concerning copyright, the Irish Supreme Court examined the issues of "literary work" and "originality". The Court upheld the decision of the High Court that the recording of the plaintiff's voice on tape did not give rise to a literary work, and that the recitation by a child of a story told to her by a teacher was not original. The case concerned a tape recording, by a schoolteacher, of Bible stories recited by the plaintiff and other children when they were pupils in her religious education class many years earlier. The recording had recently been released by EMI Records, with...