Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We will support the Bill, which is complex and technical. It is unlikely to keep the political correspondents up late at night as other Bills might, but it is important for those directly affected. One of the issues is that people generally do not know very much about copyright unless it affects them directly.

More public information needs to be made available on this area in order that people are aware of the issues regarding copyright. The points Deputy Niamh Smyth made about musicians, artists, film makers and so on not having their rights abused are important. People often casually download music and access digital material without considering the fact there are laws around this and that they may well be breaking them. It is important there is more widespread knowledge about exactly what we can and cannot do with respect to intellectual property and copyright that belongs to somebody else.

Generally, copyright extends throughout the person's life plus 70 years afterwards. In some cases with respect to broadcasts it is 50 years. It is quite a long period. Unfortunately, many artists do not benefit as much as their estate particularly if what they have written or made becomes valuable at a later stage, but it is important that it is protected.

There is a number of measures in the Bill. I also welcome that there will be more access to the jurisdictions of the District and Circuit Courts. There should not be obstacles to justice on any issue but in this area where costs could be a factor it is important that the courts are more accessible.

The Bill will implement the recommendations of the Copyright Review Committee. I have also some concerns that not all of its recommendations are being implemented. In particular, its recommendation calling for the setting up of the copyright council is not being implemented. I raise similar a question to that raised by Deputy Quinlivan as to why it is not being implemented.

I thank the Oireachtas Library for the work it has done on this but under the section where it deals with recommendations for the establishment of a copyright council of Ireland, it suggests that the reason it is not being implemented may be because of the cost of establishing and operating it. I hope the Government will keep that under review. If it is an issue of costs, hopefully with our recovering economy issues that involve costs could be reviewed, as that was one of the committee's central recommendations. Some of the other recommendations on issues of fair use, private copying etc. are also not being fully implemented. I am not sure if the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, or the Minister of State, Deputy Halligan, is replying to this debate, but it will be interesting to hear the reasons some of these recommendations are not being implemented. One of the reasons is because of a court challenge in Britain, and that is understandable, but if there are other reasons, particularly on the issue around costs, we should be able to get answers on that.

I understand there were approximately 300 submissions to the consultation process. I presume there were submissions on both sides. There is a balance in all of this between the person who creates the material or the work of art and those who derive value from it. That includes libraries, educational institutions, galleries etc. There is some interesting material on exactly how they can be used. For example, if a gallery is organising an exhibition, it can use the pictures of the art in order to advertise that the exhibition is taking place. Those are practical measures. Many of the measures in the Bill are practical and are important to those for whom those practical measures will make a difference. One of the practical measures to which the Minister referred to in his speech relates to the easier access to patents. If I understood the Minister of State correctly, up to now if one's patent application was refused, that was it, whereas now there is an opportunity to address the reasons it was refused and for the applicant to be able to address those and have the patent accepted. In many cases we as public representatives deal with, people's applications get turned down without them having any opportunity to address the shortcomings and rectify the problem, whether it be that they have not submitted a proper bank statement or some other information. There is an intention in the Bill to address that aspect.

Another important area that has been mentioned is the educational use of data, which matters to all of us. Materials can be used for research or private study, promoting innovation requires incentivising publicly funded research, and there is the whole area of research and broadening references to research and private study. Deputy Kelleher made the point that we have so much access now through digital media and so on. This can be a positive benefit to education. The Minister of State, Deputy Daly, said the various exceptions proposed would allow for greater provision of education and training via distance learning and elearning. I would be very supportive of that and also of facilitating the use of technology in the classroom or remotely. Many older adults who did not have access to much of an educational opportunity when they were younger and if they can now benefit through elearning and in other ways, that would be positive. If young people and their teachers can also use technology in the classroom in an effective way, that would also be positive and might even lighten the weight of school bags occasionally, which is an issue of concern to the Minister of State. Some of these measures facilitate learning with the use of whiteboards in classrooms and with group learning while ensuring that we protect the rights of whoever has created the material in the first place.

I also welcome, as have others, the implementation of the Marrakesh treaty providing access for people with disabilities, access to Braille and other methods by which people can access material, if they have a particular disability. That is important and it is being addressed in the Bill.

The issue of content and data mining causes us all some concern and when I read the word "algorithm" in anything I get worried because it reminds of that somebody is watching me on my phone, knows where I am and what I am interested in. That is of wide concern to people and we have seen it highlighted very recently in another country.

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