I appreciate the committee's making time available today to consider this matter. I join with the Chairman in congratulating the new Vice-Chairman on his appointment. I wish him success in his role. He has a hard act to follow in the Chairman.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works dates from 1886. The purpose of its introduction was to replace the complex network of bilateral treaties that had, up to that time, set the conditions by which copyright owners in one country might have their works protected in another. Indirectly, this resulted in the establishment of a basic standard of copyright protection among all members of the Berne Convention, domestic and foreign.
I am sure that the members of this committee will appreciate the vital importance of copyright for the health of our economy, especially as we move more towards an information society. For example, not only do our music and sound recording industries depend on copyright to obtain reward for their creativity and investment, but our computer software industry, a major component of our modern economy, is also critically dependent on copyright protection to secure return on its investment.
The Berne Convention has been updated over the years by the adoption of a number of Acts, or partial revisions of the convention. In that regard, Ireland is already party to the convention by virtue of its ratification of the Brussels Act of the convention of 1948, and its ratification of most of the provisions of the Stockholm Act of 1967. However, Ireland has yet to sign or ratify the Paris Act of 1971, which was later revised in 1979.
The Paris Act was mainly concerned with ensuring that the special needs of developing countries were recognised by the convention. The aim was to avoid a situation in which these needs required the conclusion of separate treaties governing developing and non-developing nations. This would have severely compromised the convention's basic rationale, that of establishing a basis for mutual protection for copyright works. However, it also made a number of substantive changes to the earlier convention that impacted on Ireland's obligations. Notable among these were the duty imposed on member states to provide for the moral rights of authors; that is to say, the right to be identified as the author, and the right to object to derogatory treatment of works. The Paris Act also extended and clarified the exclusive right of reproduction of works. Ireland's copyright statute at the time, the Copyright Act 1963, did not provide adequately for these changes and so it was not possible for Ireland to accede to the Paris Act at the time of its formulation, or subsequent revision in 1979. The Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000, No. 28 of 2000, which entered into force on 1 January 2001, brought Ireland's legislation in this field fully into line with the requirements in substance of the Paris act of the Berne Convention. It was always Ireland's intention to accede to the Paris act once these conditions were met.
The formalities of accession to the Paris Act were not seen as an immediate priority in the immediate aftermath of the commencement of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000, given that the substantive necessary provisions had been introduced into our domestic legislation. However, this position changed following a finding of the European Court of Justice that Ireland's failure to adhere fully to the Paris act was in a breach of its obligations under the European Economic Area Agreement and therefore placed Ireland in breach of European Community law.
The Commission's actions in this matter have placed Ireland under threat of the imposition of penalties should we fail to rectify this. In moving to do this, we encountered some technical difficulties. Chief among these was that, owing mainly to lapse of time, there were difficulties in establishing certain facts to provide a secure, valid basis for accession under Irish and international treaty law. It proved extremely difficult to establish, for example, such matters as whether Ireland had actually signed the Paris Act at the time, some 33 years ago. That needed to be established in order to determine whether, technically, we should ratify the instrument, or accede to it. I am glad to say that these difficulties have now been resolved and the Government is anxious to see the State accede to the Paris Act as soon as possible.
The current motion is submitted to the House in recognition of the fundamental importance of the Paris Act of the Berne Convention in the regulation of international copyright relations. These, in turn, are central to the health of the Irish economy in this information age. The appreciation of the House of the importance of copyright and the underlying principles of the Paris Act of the Berne Convention was recognised in its passing of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000. The commitment of the Government and of this House to maintaining Ireland's position in the forefront of effective intellectual property protection for the new millennium remains absolute. Subject to the approval of the House of the motion before the committee today, the deposit of instruments of accession to the Paris Act of the Berne Convention with the depository authority, the World Intellectual Property Organisation, will be done without delay. I commend the motion to the committee.
