General
Supporting Guth Magazine
As readers will know, I think journalism- in the sense of actually telling readers things they don’t know but ought to- is both rare and excellent. I also think that most of the paths journalism used to come to us are now blocked by a poverty of resources and ideas. So that’s why I was delighted to support the Guth magazine project on crowdsourcing site indigogo. Gerard Cunningham (@faduda) and Jason Walsh are attempting to do something new (which is […]
A Hundred Thousand Welcomes!
Section 3 of the Hotel Proprietors Act 1963 stipulates: “The proprietor of a hotel is under a duty to receive at the hotel as guests all persons who, whether or not under special contract, present themselves and require sleeping accommodation, food or drink and to provide them therewith, unless he has reasonable grounds of refusal.” Section 4 goes on to provide: “Where a person is received as a guest at a hotel, whether or not under special contract, the proprietor of […]
Some Reaction to Irish Newspapers demanding money for links
On Sunday night, we published our post 2012: The year Irish newspapers tried to destroy the web on the efforts of the Irish newspaper industry to assert property rights over links. The post has provoked a good deal of comment. For convenience, we have collected up a few of the responses. Hugh Linehan, the Editor of IrishTimes.com: @jobrodie I should acknowledge that it’s all factually correct as far as I know — Hugh Linehan (@hlinehan) December 31, 2012 Prof Jay […]
How Irish MEPs Voted on ACTA
Voted in Favour of ACTA None Voted Against ACTA Emer Costello, Paul Murphy, Liam Alyward, Nessa Childers, Pat the Cope Gallagher, Marian Harkin, Phil Prendergast Abstained on ACTA Gay Mitchell, Mairead McGuinness, Sean Kelly, Jim Higgins No Vote Recorded on ACTA Brian Crowley, Source, Pages 19-20. Update: This post originally showed Phil Prendergast as not having a vote recorded. This was my error and I have corrected it above. Sorry about that Ms Prendergast!
SOPA Ireland Duck Hunt: Killing Canards
Canard: An unfounded or false, deliberately misleading story; a duck. “I will introduce this imminently, by the end of January.” -Sean Sherlock, Sunday Business Post, 23rd January 2012 First, I’d to clarify that Minister of State, Sean Sherlock TD, has emphasised that he has not put forward any proposals to enact a “Stop Online Piracy” type Law. – He intends to bring in a vaugely worded law permitting copyright holders to seek injunctions without any explicit safeguards for fundamental rights, […]
SOPAIreland Alternative Ministerial Order: Jam Today as well as Jam Tomorrow
Minister for State Sean Sherlock is in an unenviable position. On the 10th of Jan 2012 his government was sued by EMI Ireland for their claimed losses arising from his alleged failure to provide for injunctive relief. On the 17th January the Chief State Solicitor entered an appearance to that claim. That means the State then had 21 days to put in a defence. By my, admittedly shaky calculations, this means the State has until the 5th February to enter […]
Stop SOPA Ireland: We must have Openness, not murky backroom deals
You will have noticed the black banner across the top of our site this week. You may also have noticed the sudden flurry of media appearances and debates on radio around the issue of Minister of State Sean Sherlock’s plan to introduce a law to allow the music labels (and other copyright holders) to seek injunctions forcing Irish ISPs to block access to sites they don’t like. “I will introduce this imminently, by the end of January.”– Minister Sherlock, Sunday […]
Email delivery system back working
This problem has now been resolved. Thanks for your patience. Due to a breakdown in our email providers’ servers, our office has not received any emails today (Mon 7th Nov). Our providers assure us that no email has been lost and have estimated service will resume at 9am on Tuesday 8th Nov. Thank you .
Flood problem resolved: Our phones, fax and email are back in service
FINAL UPDATE, Mon 1st November 2011 All phones, fax and email communication have now been restored to our office. We are glad to be back. Update Fri 11.40 We no longer have any Internet connection to our office. In addition Eircom now says that it estimates it will be Tuesday or Wednesday of next week before our line faults are repaired. We regret the difficulties in contacting us and suggest that ordinary posted letters are the most reliable form of […]