Sherlock: Copyright laws will be balanced

Copyright laws to be signed into effect by Innovation Minister Sean Sherlock will not be used by big websites to “beat down” small ones.

Mr Sherlock rejected comparisons to the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) in the US, which opponents say threatens free speech and could force blogs or small websites to shut.

“I think people are interpreting this as us doing the bidding of the large corporations,” Mr Sherlock said in a Dáil debate on the ministerial order he intends to sign to introduce the laws without Dáil legislation.

“I want to restate that this is not Sopa,” he said.

More than 50,000 have signed a “Stop Sopa Ireland” online petition opposing the new laws, which they say favour large corporations over individuals.

Independent TDs Catherine Murphy and Stephen Donnelly raised concerns during last night’s debate about the possible impact of the legislation on smaller online enterprises, who they said could be exposed to huge legal costs.

Fianna Fáil spokesman on innovation Willie O’Dea said the Government was “abdicating huge responsibility” to judges with the statutory order. He said he had confidence in judges but “this is a matter for parliament not the judiciary and we should be setting down the principles here” in primary legislation.

However, Mr Sherlock said he did not believe that primary legislation was needed for the laws which would allow copyright holders to seek injunctions against those they believed were infringing their copyright.

While he did not accept changes proposed by the opposition, he requested more Dáil time in the future to address the concerns of the mostly independent TDs opposed to legislation.

Dublin South-East Fine Gael TD Eoghan Murphy expressed concern over the legislation. He said it was a complicated issue and it was difficult to know “whether to believe the hype”. He said some small companies had come to him with concerns about the legislation while larger companies had not shown concern.

Mr Sherlock insisted that his proposal did not mirror Sopa: “This is balancing the right of a copyright holder against the right of an individual.”

He said there were inherent rights in the Charter of Fundamental Rights to allow individual companies to conduct their business.