Expert: online piracy laws ‘will hurt economy’

New internet piracy laws being formulated by the Government will harm the country’s thriving digital industry, an expert has claimed.

Sean Sherlock, minister of state at the Department of Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation, is preparing a statutory instrument that opponents say mirrors the Stop Online Piracy Act in the US, a government vote on which was postponed after a global campaign against it.

According to Blacknight, the Irish registrar and hosting company, the introduction of similar laws here will hurt Ireland’s online trade.

“Ireland has a healthy digital economy. International companies such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, eBay, PayPal and many more have chosen Ireland as their European home,” said Michele Neylon of Blacknight.

“The introduction of this sort of legislation could only have a negative impact on the digital industry and the Irish economy as a whole.”

A spokesperson for Mr Sherlock last night rejected claims that the Irish legislation mirrored SOPA, saying such claims were “not based in fact”.

According to Government sources, legislation halting piracy is required due to a High Court judgment in 2010 which found Ireland was in breach of EU regulations by failing to provide for court ordered blocking of rogue internet sites.

Mr Sherlock’s spokes-person said: “Two EU directives (the Copyright Directive 2001 and the Enforcement Directive 2004) require that the holders of copyright — authors, music composers, lyricists, record producers etc — are in a position to apply for an injunction against intermediaries whose services are used by a third party to infringe a copyright or related right.”

He said Mr Sherlock was aware of the importance of the digital industry and that the laws were necessary to comply with Ireland’s obligations under EU law.

However, opponents point to a recent decision of the European Court of Justice that filtering sites would be not be allowed if it undermined freedom of expression and blocked lawful communications.

Simon McGarr of McGarr Solicitors is urging internet users to sign the Stop SOPA Ireland petition at stopsopaireland.com.

More than 16,000 people have already signed it.

“The minister has said he is bringing in this bad law before the end of January, with no Dáil debate.”

TJ McIntyre, a lawyer and information technology specialist, said the law would give courts the power to grant orders against internet service providers which offer facilities that could be used to infringe copyright.

“This could include hosting providers, social networks, forums, video hosting sites — potentially most online services.

“At a minimum this will probably allow courts to require ISPs to block access to alleged infringing sites. Once copyright plaintiffs get hold of this power, you can expect it to be pushed to its absolute limit.”