Dáil debates

Thursday, 27 April 2023

Historic and Archaeological Heritage Bill 2023 [Seanad]: Second Stage (Resumed)

 

2:05 pm

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Yes, "The Quiet Man" or "Darby O'Gill and the Little People".

In all seriousness, a point I did not know until the performers made it at the committee, is that when movies are made, often by international film production companies in conjunction with companies based here, performers are required to sign buy-out contracts on their copyright or their intellectual property rights on their performances. Obviously that is very unfair on the artists and performers because they do not benefit from the success or further distribution of films that were funded with public money. The reason we give public money to film productions and are allowed to do so by the EU, even though it is a form of state aid, is because it contributes to Irish culture and benefits the workers. These are the conditions for the funding. It has to create an industry. Yet, the situation is that on almost all film productions in this country, the performers, artists, writers, directors and so on are required to sign away their intellectual property rights to the cultural artefact to which they contributed. Consequently, the State is also losing out. It has financed the film, which is now a cultural artefact but it has no ownership over it and does not benefit from what happens to it. It is now owned by Netflix, MGM or some other company and that is problematic. I am just throwing that into the debate, although it is a bit of a tangent. Films are real cultural artefacts and arguably, they are one of the biggest forms of cultural production today. As they are of great importance to people, we should think about this with an open mind. We must ask what exactly represents our cultural heritage. It is not just physical sites, buildings, landscapes and so on. It is also things that artists and performers produce, which are cultural artefacts of our society. I will leave it at that.

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