Tusla: questions to answer about data protection
Under Article 37.1 of the GDPR, all public bodies are required to have a Data Protection Officer (a DPO). The DPO is the person in the organization who is charged with ensuring the organization complies with data protection legislation. For organisations with large databases of …
Pulling the plug is not the answer
Dr. Richard Tynan and I have a piece in Saturday’s Irish Examiner discussing the implications of Eircom’s “phased disconnection” scheme. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be on their website, so here’s the full text: Pulling the plug is not the answer Earlier this week Eircom …
Why Irish defamation law is still inadequate for the internet
The Defamation Act 2009 was hugely controversial for the blasphemy offence it created. Lost in the noise, however, was the fact that it did very little to improve the position of online speech. Before the draft Bill was published, we identified several areas which needed …
More thoughts on the Data Retention Bill
Daithi MacSithigh has put together a summary of problems with the Bill – cross posted here with his permission: The Minister for Justice in Ireland published the Communications (Retention of Data) Bill last week: it was made available on the Oireachtas website (and brought to …
Three unproven accusations and you’re out – why the Eircom / IRMA deal is bad for internet users
The internet is abuzz (Irish Times | EFF | ars technica | Boing Boing) with the news that Eircom and the record labels have reached an out of court settlement in which Eircom has agreed to implement a “three strikes” regime for disconnecting people accused …
Oireachtas Committee rejects passenger records proposals
The Irish Times is reporting that the Joint Committee on European Scrutiny (a cross party committee which examines proposed EU legislation) has published a report which is highly critical of European proposals on passenger records. The draft Framework Decision on the Use of Passenger Name …
Liberty v. UK: European Court of Human Rights finds mass surveillance system violates the right to privacy
In the appropriately named Liberty v. The United Kingdom the European Court of Human Rights has held that a system of mass surveillance operated by the UK government to spy on all telephone calls, faxes and emails to and from Ireland was in breach of …
23 Filesharers to be Identified – But Concerns Remain
The “fight against piracy” trundles along with news that IRMA have obtained another High Court order requiring ISPs to identify 23 subscribers who are accused of filesharing. As usual, we can’t condone illegal filesharing (though we should point out that this is just one of …
Sunday Business Post article on Freedom of Speech Online
Many thanks to Adam Maguire, writing in the Sunday Business Post, for covering our concerns about Irish libel laws and their impact on free speech online. We’ll be doing our best to secure greater protection for online publishers in the new Defamation Bill. Excerpt: The …
DRI is looking for your support
On the 6th December, Digital Rights Ireland formally launched. Our stated mission is to protect civil, legal and human rights in a digital age. Now we’re asking people who share that aim to help us out by pledging their money to DRI. If you’re in …
Libel Laws In Ireland
Journalists and celebrities alike are well aware of the law when it comes to defamation, but the online community often forgets the legal boundaries placed on Free Speech. This pamphlet is intended to give an outline of Defamation Law as it applies to online publications, but …