Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein)
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Senator Deirdre Clune has also raised this matter. I am not a fan or an advocate of censorship because I believe a more free and open world will benefit everyone. I raise this matter because of the recent ruling by the High Court which ordered UPC to block the website The Pirate Bay. This was done at the whim of big business and could be the beginning of a slippery slope. We do not want to find ourselves in the same position as the Chinese in terms of the so-called great firewall of China where the content available to citizens is highly filtered. I acknowledge, however, that that is an extreme case. In Finland Internet censorship began with the very noble premise of blocking child pornography, but very quickly other websites which contained no morally questionable content were being blocked. Even worse, there is no procedure available for website owners to have their websites unblocked. If we are to go down this road of censorship, an independent body should be established to review reported websites on a case-by-case basis.

It goes without saying blocking websites should be a last resort and done in the interests of people, not big business. For example, if a website is found to be hosting copyright material, all other measures such as the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act take-down notice should be exhausted. It is possible that the people running a website have no idea that such content or material is on it, as may be the case with a public forum. It makes no sense to block the entire website owing to the actions of a couple of bad actors, particularly when less extreme actions can be taken first. It should be a transparent process and website owners should be able to appeal to have the block removed if the process is found to be in breach. It must be ensured only illegal content is blocked, not just ideas or opinions which are controversial. It should not be the case that secret lists are compiled, with few or no review procedures, and that websites not in breach of any legislation are filtered from the Internet.

I await the Minister of State's and the Department's response.

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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I thank the Senator for raising this important matter. I assure her and the House that Ireland subscribes fully to the freedoms, opportunities and the access to information that the Internet provides. A broad and robust set of measures is in place to preserve these freedoms, including the profound protections given to freedom of speech in both the European Convention on Human Rights and the Constitution. These can only be breached in very particular circumstances and legally precise and transparent ways. As such, the measures that allow the State to interfere with the free flow of information over the Internet are precisely defined and can only be used in certain circumstances.

On the specific issue of copyright, it is the case that the holders of copyright are entitled, by virtue of the protections enjoyed under copyright law, to control the use of these works such as in the case of the right to make copies of the work, to broadcast the work or to disseminate the work on-line. Copyright law provides for remedies to be taken where copyright infringement is alleged, that is, where acts such as those just outlined take place without the consent of the copyright holder or without any remuneration being given to the holder of the copyright in the works. Such remedies are mandated by the EU copyright directive dating from 2001. The European Union (Copyright and Related Rights) Regulations 2012 were signed into law by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, on 29 February 2012. These regulations are not about censorship but rather responding to the requirements of the EU copyright directive which requires member states to provide that injunctive relief may be sought against intermediaries whose services are being used by a third party to infringe a copyright. The regulations provide legal clarity and the ability to file for injunctive relief against an intermediary such as an Internet service provider, ISP, in a case where copyright infringement is alleged. The regulations facilitated the granting of a blocking injunction in the recent High Court case concerning The Pirate Bay website as mentioned by the Senator.

It is important to note that the granting of injunctions is not an automatic procedure but must involve a judicial process. The High Court has drawn significant guidance in this area from case law before the European Court of Justice. This ensures any remedy provided for must be balanced against a range of competing principles in a manner that is reasonable and proportionate to all concerned, including that the fundamental rights of an ISP's customer must be respected, namely, his or her right to protection of personal data and freedom to receive or impart information.