Copyright in the digital era is complex and controversial

It's obvious that innovative digital technologies, from the Internet to multimedia, have created new markets and new creative possibilities for companies. But as usual, there's a trade-off.

The same ease with which someone can hop onto the Net, acquire a domain name (a Net address like www.irishtimes.com), or reproduce a range of "old" media (text, film, music, photographs or drawings) online or on CD-Rom has raised serious concerns about protection of trademark, patent and copyright, all generally classified as "intellectual property".

Moves are afoot to eventually produce a set of global laws, through the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), and through the joint efforts of national governments. But for now, countries are required to update their own laws, and the State's laws are woefully unclear, say legal experts. Copyright protections still fall under the 1963 copyright act, which takes no account of new technologies at all, says Ms Helen Sheehy, a solicitor with Dun Laoghaire firm, Partners at Law, specialising in intellectual property, and the chairwoman of the newly formed organisation MultiMedia Copyright Clearance Ireland (CMMI).

The law "needs serious amendment in many areas", and in particular, needs to incorporate a number of recent EU directives, she says.

The Government dragged its feet so long on a new copyright Bill spending more than five years putting together an act which is now promised by August

that it was pressurised by unhappy US technology firms into passing what Ms Sheehy calls "a little copyright act" to cover software crimes (Ireland has one of the highest international rates of software piracy).

Because the EU has recognised that national governments may be sued by content creators who lost royalties because national law did not incorporate EU law, she says there's now added incentive for the Government to move swiftly.

But even with new laws, copyright in the digital era is still complex, wide ranging and controversial. Bitter arguments between technology firms, artists, Internet rights groups, lawyers and elected officials have accompanied every attempt to pass digital copyright legislation in the US.

"Copyright is the area of law which protects an enormous amount of intellectual endeavour," notes Ms Sheehy. Rights must often be cleared, and royalties paid, in dozens of separate markets. Content creators from RTE to a single musician want to protect their material and receive royalties if it is used.

Content users from giants such as Microsoft, which makes multimedia products like the Encarta encyclopaedia, to filmmakers, writers, or Website designers need to clear rights and legally protect themselves. Confusingly, content creators like RTE are also content users as well.

"If we don't have a simple, transparent method of clearing rights, people either won't bother using the material or will use it illegally," says Ms Sheehy. That's where she feels the CMMI will benefit artists and content creators as well as content users. The idea is that CMMI will establish a giant Irish database of Irish content which may be searched by someone who wants to source a particular item say, a Riverdance clip or which may be browsed by someone who is looking for content.

With an initial membership which includes RTE, the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO), the National Gallery, the Irish Copyright Licensing Association, the Art Association of Ireland, and most provincial newspapers, CMMI is on its way to assembling a comprehensive database of Irish creativity. But individual artists may be wary of having a large organisation handling their creative output when they already typically have representative organisations which look after their rights, like IMRO.

Ms Sheehy says she understands their wariness, but feels CMMI will gain trust "if everyone sees that it works, it's transparent, and the company is honest". She says she definitely doesn't want CMMI to become just a clearing house for the large content providers and users. "It won't work unless we have everybody on board, including the little guys."

CMMI, which will be run as a limited company with any profits ploughed back into the organisation, came about through the concerns of members of the Copyright Association of Ireland. A number of formative meetings have been held, and decisions on the precise shape of the CMMI will be decided at a meeting in late October or early November.

While Ms Sheehy says the members agree that CMMI should be a one-stop shop for clearing rights, they aren't yet sure what responsibilities the organisation will shoulder. "There's been a lot of discussion on would it just be an information centre or would it handle licensing," she says.

For now, it will probably exist as an information centre, part of the EU's VERDI programme to create digital "interoperability" between member-states. In other words, the CMMI database would become part of a large European database of prospective digital content, and would ease the use of content and clearance of usage rights.

A sliding scale of membership would take in big companies, representative organisations, and individuals. If CMMI achieves its potential, she says, it would eventually offer legal advice, draft contracts, piracy controls, and a range of prototypes for conducting business. Certainly, copyright protection is hardly an area most people will want to venture into on their own. In Ireland "you find that most lawyers are completely confused about it and God help the public", Ms Sheehy says.

The Copyright Association of Ireland (01 230 1286) is holding a seminar this afternoon at the Davenport Hotel, Dublin, on Internet Commerce: Fact or Fiction which will explore digital copyright issues.

Karlin Lillington is atklillington@irish-times.ie