Concerns that a ministerial order on copyright mirrors the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) in the United States “are not based on fact”, Minister of State Seán Sherlock has insisted.
Mr Sherlock said the US proposals could not be introduced in the EU, where the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights had to be applied.
He was opening a debate on the controversial statutory instrument or order he published last week, which would allow copyright holders to seek injunctions against those they believed were infringing their copyright.
Mr Sherlock who has responsibility for research and innovation, said the US proposals would involve blocking access to websites internationally, taking down entire websites for one infringing item, blocking access to websites by US State enforcement without notice and imposing a requirement on internet companies to monitor content. This was in effect “forcing them to self-censor”.
He said the Charter of Fundamental Rights included the right to conduct a business, protection of date the right to protection of personal data and the freedom to receive or impart information with the right to intellectual property.
He said “proportionality has to come into play here” and “there are certain fundamental rights”.
“If you have one person accessing a site like Youtube and one person is not acting legally, the court would have to have regard to proportionality. Why would an Irish court in an Irish domain shut down a website that has millions and millions of users potentially for the actions of one person?”
He said : “You could argue that that would be an infringement of the right of a business person to conduct their business and there were certain fundamental rights. He said the judiciary would have to have complete regard for those rights.”
He also rejected claims the Government was doing the bidding of big business. He said there were many small individual copyright holders as well.
Fianna Fáil spokesman on innovation Willie O’Dea believed the Government was “abdicating huge responsibility” to judges with the statutory order. He said he had huge confidence in judges but “this is a matter for parliament not the judiciary and we should be setting down the principles here” in primary legislation.
Sinn Féin communications spokesman Martin Ferris said the debate would be pointless if the Minister went ahead and signed the order anyway.
Independent TD for Wicklow Stephen Donnelly said additional clauses needed to be added to the instrument including the principle of targeting intermediaries is a fundamentally flawed approach. He said the instrument could have several undesired and unintended effects
Mr Donnelly and Independent TD for Kildare North Catherine Murphy proposed an alternative wording to the statutory instrument. Ms Murphy said they proposed the inclusion of key safeguards which would protect certain basis online freedoms.