But first: if you're not interesting in reading this long and occasionally rambling post, then at least go to http://stopsopaireland.com/, have a read, and then think about signing. If you do want to read the post, then I'll give you the link again at the end: it's important.
When I was back in school - and I'm sure this happened to most of the rest of you as well - there was one particular teacher known for being tough on pupils. Any minor infringement saw the offender punished to the full extent of the law. And this was fine: everyone knew where they stood. Until the day came when a paper aeroplane landed on his desk, and the perpetrator was nowhere to be seen.
"Who threw that?" came the cry from the front of the room. "Who threw that?" A stony silence filled the classroom as the entire class clammed up. "If you don't own up, the whole class will be in detention, all week." No one owned up.
We spent the rest of the week in detention, writing out, time after time, "I will not throw paper aeroplanes in class."
And you know, I think that's an important lesson. If you can't find someone to blame, then blame everyone.
OK. The point, then.
By reports, on the 26th January, the Irish government is due to pass legislation that is known as "The Irish SOPA", potentially forcing ISPs to block entire sites from the internet if a copyright holder alleges that the hosting site has content which breaches their copyright. So - in theory - if a website has a single copyright infringement on it then the entire site can be brought to court by the copyright holder and blocked by ISPs. Fantastic: copyright holders no longer need to find out who was to blame for uploading an illegal file, or even who downloaded an illegal file: they just blame everyone, and suddenly everyone is in detention, writing out a million times: I will not upload pirated content to the Internet.
OK, quick notice: uploading material to which you do not own the copyright is wrong. Pirating music is wrong. But that doesn't mean we should shut down YouTube because some people upload pirated music there. (And, you know, the only thing worse that having your music pirated onto YouTube is not having your music pirated onto YouTube...)
You know, this could turn into a really long ranty post, but I'm going to try and keep things brief: it's late, you know... I'll stick to the most concerning parts:
- The method of bringing the bill into law
- The rushed nature of the bill and the vague wording of it
- The legal implications of the bill and the potential for challenges to it
1) The bill is due to be passed by a statutory instrument, meaning that it is not to be debated in the parliament (tjmcintyre.com)
We've just seen online the outpouring of support against this type of law when it was brought up for debate in the United States. Protests saw, amongst other events, Google placing links to the debate on their homepage and Wikipedia going dark for a day. The level of reporting and engagement with this bill at the moment is miniscule: it's only two days before it's due to be passed and there is still (to my knowledge) no specific wording of the bill released, only the fact that it will be passed. It may not have been intended this way, but it feels like legislation passed by stealth, and passed by force, bypassing the usual democratic safeguards.
2) The rushed nature and vague wording
I'm writing this on the 24th January. The earliest reference to this I've found has been the statement release by the chief instigator of the bill, Sean Sherlock TD, on his website at: http://www.labour.ie/press/listing/13245642324974.html. That was released on the 22nd December. So let's say a month. I'd be very happy to know that this had been announced earlier, and that we'd all just missed it, rather than the whole thing being rushed from end to end within a month, but so far, not much evidence. An earlier draft had been around since June last year, but reports indicate that this new bill may go further.
I've been looking around for specifics of the bill, and the best I've found has been the summary on TJ McIntyre's blog, as linked above. That references the early draft, and goes into the implications of the vague wording far better than I can.
3) The legal implications and potential challenges
Other reading I've done suggests that the legal implications of these amendments haven't been properly considered. A reply from ALTO to the Deparment of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation on the subject of the proposed changes to the copyright act points out some of the potential problems the new law may face; including the fact that previous, similar, acts in other European countries have been overturned by the courts. Likewise, in November last year the European Court of Justice ruled that it is not legal to force ISPs to block specific sites, a rule which should be in force throughout Europe.
What would happen if the ruling were to be challenged by a large organisation? A humiliating backtrack or a confrontation?
Don't take my word for it: go to http://stopsopaireland.com/ and have a read. It's worth it. If you agree with me, sign the petition there. Write to your TD. Do something.
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