On 6 December 2012, the Irish recording industry issued
proceedings against five Irish ISPs; UPC, Vodafone, Digiweb,
Imagine and 3, seeking that the Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
block subscriber access to The Pirate Bay. The proceedings are
grounded on new legislation which came into force in February of
this year. The record companies were unsuccessful in
obtaining such an order against UPC in 2010 based on the
legislative regime at the time.
The new legislation, statutory instrument No 59/2012, The European
Union (Copyright and Related rights) Regulations 2012, inserts a
new Section 40(5A) into the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000
and states:
"(5A)(a) The owner of the copyright in a work may, in
respect of that work, apply to the High Court for an injunction
against an intermediary to whom paragraph 3 of Article 8 of
Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
of 22 May 20011 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of
copyright and related rights in the information society
applies.
(b) In considering an application for an injunction under this
subsection, the court shall have due regard to the rights of any
person likely to be affected by virtue of the grant of any such
injunction and the court shall give such directions (including,
where appropriate, a direction requiring a person be notified of
the application) as the court considers appropriate in all of the
circumstances."
Last Monday, the case was before Mr Justice Kelly who admitted the
case into the Commercial Court on consent. An order was also made
to permit the proceedings to proceed without the joinder of the
relevant copyright owners of the works that the plaintiffs are the
exclusive licensees in the State. Directions were provided at the
hearing that enable the parties to correspond and meet in the new
year to narrow issues with the matter returnable to the Court on 28
January 2013. Matheson acts for UPC and 3 in the
proceedings.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
