The legislation governing defamation in Ireland. Includes a defence of innocent publication in s.27. A court may make an order prohibiting publication of a defamatory statement under s.33. The Act also contains an offence of blasphemy in s.36.
This was an action against the operators and moderator of an internet site and bulletin board set up to facilitate discussions by Ryanair pilots. Ryanair alleged that bullying and intimidation of pilots was taking place on the site and sought ‘Norwich Pharmacal’ orders to disclose the identities of certain users of the bulletin board. On reviewing the evidence, Smyth J. found that there was no evidence of bullying or intimidation or that Ryanair had suffered loss. He distinguished this case from EMI v Eircom, 2005 (see below) and the English case of Totalise v Motley Fool 2001 EWCA Civ 1897. He also stated that a balance needed to be struck between justice and privacy.
The Privacy Bill was published by the previous Government in 2006 but has not been enacted. In 2012, the Minister for Justice stated that he was considering re-introducing a version of this Bill.
Record companies requested Eircom, a large ISP, to provide identities of 17 customers who were allegedly infringing copyright. The High Court ordered that customers’ identities should be passed to the ISP, based on the UK tort case of Norwich Pharmacal v Customs & Excise 1973 UKHL 6. The court also relied on the Canadian case of BMG Canada v Doe 2004 FC 488.
This Statutory Instrument implements the E-Commerce Directive (Directive 2000/31/EC) into Irish law. The Regulations include restrictions on liability, subject to certain conditions, regarding mere conduits, caching and hosting (Regs. 15-18). Non-liability is defined to include civil or criminal liability (Reg. 15(b)). The Regulations do not apply to gambling activities (Reg.2).
Self-Regulation/Voluntary Agreement/Code of Conduct
The Code governs the conduct of ISPAI's Members and may be amended from time to time by 75% majority vote of members of ISPAI. The Code mandates the development of acceptable use policies for participating ISPs which clearly set out guidelines for customers/users, including prohibitions on customers using ISP service to create, host, transmit material which is unlawful / libellous / abusive / offensive / vulgar / obscene / calculated to cause unreasonable offence. The Code also sets out procedures for dealing with complaints regarding third party content, illegal material and harmful material.