The Gazette 1993

GAZETTE

APRIL . 1993

copyright is infringed by any person who, not being the owner of the copyright, and without licence of the owner, does or authorises another person to do any restricted acts. copyright owner. Part IV, ss. 22-28 1963 Act, provides for remedies. Different remedies may be appropriate: injunction, an order for account, damages, action for conversion; criminal sanction under the Copyright (Amendment) Act 1987; an Anton Pilar order for search and seizure of documents. 6 Infringement of copyright is actionable at the suit of the Existing copyright law may seem too restrictive or too expansive depending on the interests involved. Even allowing for fair dealing exceptions, existing law is being widely abused by offices, educational users and libraries. Warnings at the start of books clearly assert legal rights and try to prohibit unauthorised photocopying. (Even without such warnings, rights exist.) Unauthorised copying is illegal and enforcement actions are a threat to individuals and bodies flouting the law. In a recent landmark decision, Texaco, a New York Federal District Court held that copying journal materials for employees' use was not fair use, and that permission and compensation were required. 7 It may be difficult to produce evidence of infringement by copying. 8 Controlling Copying under Copyright Law

bundle of rights which can be assigned or licensed together or separately. The ICLA is an non- profit making company limited by guarantee, recently incorporated, with equal representation on its board and in its membership by authors and publishers. The articles of association provide that the board be chaired in alternate years by a publisher and author nominee. Publisher Michael Gill is chairman and author Eilis Dillon is secretary. The board fortunately obtained the legal services of Muireann O Briain on a part-time basis. The ICLA will operate through mandates from writers and publishers. Authors' unions support the initiative. ICLA will exercise sensible control over photocopying and provide users with an easy means of obtaining permission to copy. 9 ICLA will act as a clearing centre for dealings between owners and users of copyright material. Users such as schools, universities, tutorial centres, commercial firms, State Departments and agencies, public bodies, professionals and individuals will be able to comply with copyright law through the ICLA. ICLA will licence the photocopying of brief extracts from published works. The limits are 5% of a book or an entire poem/story not exceeding ten pages. Libraries and other heavy users will have to keep records or agree to a survey system. ICLA will collect appropriate fees from users and income will be passed on to publishers and authors. Carte blanche unrestricted copying will not be allowed. Limitations and conditions of copying will be clearly stated to all licensees. Publishers will be relieved of unproductive work such as individual correspondence. The ICLA system mirrors collection agencies abroad. A reciprocal arrangement has been signed with the UK agency. ICLA hopes to negotiate with other members of the International Federation of New Licensing System International Dimension

Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO) so that payment for Irish published works can be collected abroad. The Australian Copyright Agency Ltd., having negotiated royalties from the Federal Government for press cuttings circulated in the civil service, is now focusing attention on abuses in the educational sector. 10 The Declaration of Human Rights, article 27, 1947, asserts both sides of the copyright coin: individuals' cultural rights and authors' rights to protect their moral and material interests. 11 Many countries, including Ireland, are members of the Berne Copyright Union and/or the Universal Copyright Convention. 12 In countries other than that of origin, authors are given not only rights of domestic laws of those countries but also rights granted by the Union. Works published in any country of the Berne Union or Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) are protected in the Irish jurisdiction as if the works were first published in the State. 13 UCC formalities require the use of the symbol © on all published copies of works, plus the copyright owner's name and year of first publication. EC harmonisation initiatives in the intellectual property field, aimed at removing impediments to the free movement within the Internal Market, are a spur to reform of national copyright law. Differences between such laws impede progress. 14 The common law copyright concept as known in Ireland and the UK, contrasts with civil law continental concepts, especially droit d'auteur. The latter, which evolved from the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, related to authors' absolute control over creations of the mind. Copyright law, based on economic arguments, is more suited than the abstract droit d'auteur to protecting computer software. There are also neighbouring rights e.g. of performers and moral rights to the creative integrity of literary works. A proposed EC Council EC Aspects and Law Reform

"a New York Federal District Court held that copying journal materials for employees' use was not fair use, and that permission and compensation were required."

The Irish Copyright Licensing Agency (ICLA)

As photocopiers are commonplace, it is difficult for individual copyright holders to prevent abuse of their rights. Control by a special agency is the effective solution matching concepts of copyright as a multiple

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