Ireland has implemented the Press review (Art. 5.3(c) 1st part InfoSoc) exception in Section 51(2) of the Copyright and Related Rights Act. The national exception is slightly more restrictive than the EU exception.

Implementation summary:

This exception allows for the making of a copy and communication to the public of a work (other than a photograph) on current economic, political or religious matters or similar matters by a media business. Such use must not be expressly reserved, and the copy and communication must be accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement. Subsequent sale, rental or lending, or offer or exposure for sale, rental or loan, or otherwise making available to the public of such a copy is expressly forbidden by subsection 2A.

Implementation details:

Beneficiaries:

• media business (within the meaning of section 28A(1) of the Competition Act 2002)

Purposes:

• not specified

Usage:

• reproduction
• communication to the public (but not making available)

Subject Matter:

• works (other than a photograph)
• press publications

Compensation:

• no compensation required

Attribution:

• the copy and communication must be accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgemen

Other Conditions:

• works used must be on current economic, political or religious matters or similar matters
• use must not be expressly reserved
• subsequent sale, rental or lensing, or offer or exposure for sale, rental or loan, or otherwise making available to the public of the copy is expressly forbidden

Introduced/last updated: 26 June 2019

Remarks: Before 2019 Ireland had a general 'fair dealing for the purpose of reporting current events' exception that could be interpreted as an implementation of the second hypothesis of art 5(3)(c) of the InfoSoc Directive. According to the previous wording of Section 51, 'Fair dealing with a work (other than a photograph) for the purpose of reporting current events shall not infringe copyright in that work, where the report is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement'. Curiously, in 2019 the Irish legislator removed the provision in its entirety and replaced it with a 'press review' exception in implementation of the first hypothesis of art 5(3)(c).

It is unclear what the extent of communication to the public under Section 52(2) is, since under (2A) 'otherwise' making available to the public of such a copy is set outside the scope of the exception.

It is also unclear whether the current exception in Section 51(2) extends to 'recordings of performances' or not, since in the relevant provision in Section 221(1)(b) CA the reference to 'reporting current events' has not been modified in 2019. As of 19 November 2021 the exception extends to press publications as per section 13(4) of S.I. No 567 of 2021.

In terms of subject-matter, there is no overall distinction made between works of authorship and related rights. Certain provisions are stated to apply to some but not all rights holders - for example moral rights are granted only to authors of literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works and film. However in general the provisions relating to ownership, duration, permitted acts, dealings and so forth, apply in the absence of a specific exclusion to every 'work', with ‘work’ defined as a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, sound recording, film, broadcast, cable programme, typographical arrangement or a published edition, or an original database, and includes a computer programme. Performances and works protected by the database right are dealt with separately to the main scheme. (see Linda Scales in ‘Ireland’ (2019), B Lindner and T Shapiro (eds), Copyright in the Information Society, Elgar Intellectual Property Law and Practice, 471)