The Irish ISP association (hotline.ie) wrote to Mr Richard Bruton, Minister of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation last month about the newspaper copyright debacle.
They finally got a “reply” but it doesn’t really address their concerns- if anything it just punts the issue to the copyright review.
You can download the hotline.ie’s original letter here and the response they received here.
UPDATE: Here’s the text of the actual reply (thanks to CometDocs!)
Dear Mr. Durrant,
I refer further to your letter of 25h January 2013 to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and
Innovation. Mr. Richard Bruton T.D regarding statements made by the National Newspapers
of Ireland about linking on the internet.
The Minister wishes to thank you for your correspondence and has noted your view that the
Copyright and Related Rights Act (CRRA) should not be amended so as to afford copyright
protection to links.
As you have stated in your letter, the independent Copyright Review Committee, which was
established by the Minister to identify areas of the present national copyright legislation that
might he deemed to create barriers to innovation, has pointed out the fundamental role that
links play in the internet ecosystem. In the Consultation Paper which the Committee
published on 29h February 2012, submissions were invited as to whether CRRA should be
amended to provide that a link to copyright material. of itself. should not constitute an
infringement of copyright. The Minister understands that the hotline.ie addressed this issue in
its submission to the Copyright Review Committee and expects therefore that the Committee
will take this into consideration in the context of their deliberations.
It is expected that the work of the Committee will be completed by the end of March and the
Minister is confident that this work, together with the interaction and input of all of the
interested parties will result in establishing Irish copyright law on a firm footing to encourage
innovation, foster creativity and meet the challenges of the future with confidence.
Yours sincerely,John Maher
Private Secretary
(Disclosure: Blacknight is a member of hotline.ie)
About the Author: Michele Neylon
