From: Ronan Waide (ronan.waide at domain euroconex.com)
Date: Mon 13 Aug 2001 - 16:52:12 IST
I was reading through some assorted Sklyarov-related stuff this
morning, and out of curiousity did a search on http://www.gov.ie/ for
copyright legislature. And lo and behold, the Copyrights Act, 2000,
has a section that is remarkably familiar: it allows for the
prosecution of people who circumvent copyright-protection
devices. Now, (a) IANAL and (b) I've only read a "Department of Trade,
Enterprise and whatever else they look after" summary document rather
than the Act itself, so, you know, it may not be quite as restrictive
as its American counterpart (which, IIRC, specifically excludes fair
use from the above clause, i.e. fair-use exemptions do not apply if
you break copyright-protection). Still, it's a little depressing to
see that we're in the same legislative mindset as the people who
arrested Dimitri.
Oh, and before you protest this, check your constitutional
freedoms. All of 'em are tempered with the rider, "as long as public
order and morality are upheld" so, you know, if you make too big a
fuss, you don't have a constitutionally-protected right of protest to
fall back on.
Cheers,
Waider.
-- Ronan Waide / Current Title: Java Developer / Euroconex Technologies Ltd.
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