IrelandCopyright and Related Rights Act 2000: Circumvention of Rights Protection Measures
Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 (No. 28 of 2000), ss. 2(1), 140(4) and 370(2)
In force since .
A copyright and text and data mining (TDM) rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Prohibition
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Do not circumvent rights protection measures applied to a copyright work or database otherwise than with the agreement of the rightsowner or pursuant to section 374 (s. 370(2)(c)).
- Do not make, sell, import or hold a protection-defeating device knowing or having reason to believe it is to be used to circumvent rights protection measures, and do not provide information or perform a service intended to enable or assist others to circumvent them (ss. 370(2)(a), (b); 140(4)).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionYes
Criminal exposure note
The offence under section 140(4) is making, selling, importing or holding a protection-defeating device with the knowledge or belief that it is to be used to circumvent rights protection measures, or providing information or a service intended to assist circumvention. On summary conviction: a class C fine in respect of each device, or imprisonment up to 12 months, or both; on conviction on indictment: a fine up to EUR 130,000 or imprisonment up to 5 years, or both.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
A person who lawfully makes available to the public or re-utilises the protected copies, who has the rightsowner's rights and remedies, by civil action (s. 370(2)).
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- Is a login wall, paywall, CAPTCHA or rate limit that a site applies to copyright works a 'process, treatment, mechanism or system' designed to prevent or inhibit the unauthorised exercise of the rights conferred by the Act, so that getting past it is circumventing a rights protection measure?
- Is a robots.txt directive a rights protection measure within section 2(1), given that it asks crawlers not to retrieve a page and does not itself prevent access?
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Section 370 gives rights and remedies against circumvention and section 140(4) creates an offence. Neither imposes a duty to create, keep, produce or review a log or record.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
A person who lawfully makes available to the public or re-utilises copies of copyright works or databases to which rights protection measures have been applied has the same rights and remedies as the rightsowner has in respect of an infringement against a person who circumvents rights protection measures in a work otherwise than with the agreement of the rightsowner or pursuant to section 374.
A rights protection measure is any process, treatment, mechanism or system designed to prevent or inhibit the unauthorised exercise of any of the rights conferred by the Act. Section 370(2) of the Act was substituted with effect from by section 34 of the Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Law Provisions Act 2019.
A person who makes, sells, imports into the State or has in his or her possession a protection-defeating device, knowing or having reason to believe that it is to be used to circumvent rights protection measures, or who provides information or performs a service intended to enable or assist a person to circumvent them, is guilty of an offence.
A person guilty of an offence under section 140(1), (3) or (4) is liable on conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding EUR 130,000, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years, or both.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app crawls the web or trains models.
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