John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of the Bill is to amend and update copyright and other intellectual property law to modernise it for the digital age and to enable rights holders to better protect their intellectual property rights in the courts. Similar to the broadcasting amendments, the amendments which are being sought to the provisions on exceptions for education purposes are as a result of concerns raised by relevant stakeholders.

Section 14 deletes the existing section 57 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 - the CRRA - and replaces it with a new section 57, as well as additional sections 57A - 57C, all of which introduce a range of new exceptions for education, teaching and scientific research. The new provisions are intended to expand to the full extent the education exceptions allowed by the EU information society directive. Following engagement with stakeholders since the publication of the Bill, and its continued passage through the Houses, it was identified that certain safeguards, which are currently contained in section 57 of the CRRA, were inadvertently removed during the drafting process. This is what created some of the problems.

Amendment No. 3 reinstates these safeguards by amending section 14, such as limiting the amount that may be copied without a licence for the purpose of education in any year. It also provides clarification regarding the actions that may be undertaken arising from the education exceptions contained in this section, and specifically references the need for users of the exception to abide by the Berne Convention three-step test, of which Deputy Lawless will be aware.

Amendment No. 4 is a technical amendment to remove two unnecessary references in the new section 57C of the CRRA to the need for licences to be used for education

purposes. Section 50A was not created in the Bill so this phantom reference must be removed. In addition, the reference to section 50 should also be deleted as it is a consequential amendment resulting from the deletion in amendment No. 7 of the specific references to "education" from the fair dealing provision for research contained in section 50 of the CRRA.

Amendment No. 5 proposes to amend section 173 of the CRRA, which governs licences for educational establishments for the use of copyright protected works. This is a consequential amendment necessary as a result of changes to the reference for a requirement for licences from section 57 to section 57C in the CRRA. The change is to avoid any uncertainty for schools and other educational establishments about the continued need to obtain licences for the use of copyright protected works, to protect the rights of authors and publishers of educational books. That is very important.

Amendment No. 7 deletes the table as it currently appears in Schedule 1 and replaces it with a new table minus lines one to three. The deletion of these lines from Schedule 1 is necessary to remove the references to "education" from the fair dealing provision for research contained in Section 50 of the CRRA. The research provision and the education provision were intended to continue to be dealt with separately, as currently exists in the CRRA. The inadvertent inclusion of "education" in these three specific instances relating to "research" expands the education exception far beyond what currently exists and would unreasonably prejudice the rights of rights holders.

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