Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

I will begin by confirming that this is absolutely not a version of the SOPA legislation. It is a restatement of a position on copyright that the Government has held to be the case. The Charleton judgment in the case of EMI v. UPC held that Ireland was not ad idem with the EU copyright directive. We are implementing a statutory instrument to give voice to that judgment and bring us into line with the directive. The Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 was implemented in the State. Every member state of the European Union has the right to seek an injunction, in line with EU legislation, in the event of a perceived infringement of the copyright of a party. Prior to the Charleton judgment, to which we were not a party, our position was that we were in line with EU legislation.

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