A government order would be issued in January to curb illegal downloading of films and music from pirate websites.
The Irish Government has decided to take steps to plug a gap in the laws that allows users of the internet to have access to websites that have pirated films and music. A friend of mine, working with the Alpybus, recently told me that as per official figures, the CD sales in the Irish Republic has gone down considerably in the last few years. If it was €146 million in 2006, the last year it was just €56 million. Grave issue indeed!
Sean Sherlock, the Minister of State for Enterprise would issue an order early in 2012 that would allow music companies, film producers etc to file lawsuits which would help them combat online piracy. The Department of Enterprise, Innovation and Jobs has informed music publisher EMI Ireland that the order will be published in January and will be incorporated into existing legislation. EMI Ireland had recently spoken of taking legal action against the State if the problem was not addressed and it’s hence that the government has decided to take this step. EMI had demanded blocking access to illegal sites that allow downloading pirated material; the court observed that this could not be done as the Copyright Act did not provide for this remedy. The court also pointed out that such a provision was needed to bring the Republic’s legislation into line with EU law.
So now, it’s just a matter of a few weeks and things hopefully would be fine for music publishers and film producers as regards combating piracy and illegal downloading.