Bewilderment over the omission of `Internet' in copyright legislation

A definition of the word "Internet" is not included in legislation on copyright, the Dail was told. The Minister of State for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Tom Kitt, said during the debate on the Copyright and Related Rights Bill that the word "Internet" was "in common usage and is reasonably well understood" and there was a danger that defining it would end up restricting its meaning and create a legal loophole.

It was extraordinary that there was no definition, said Labour's Enterprise spokesman, Mr Pat Rabbitte, who introduced an amendment defining the Internet as "any network of computers and the technology which links them to which members of the public have access either with or without charge".

Mr Rabbitte said that "if we are introducing a Bill to deal with copyright in the year 2000, to avoid defining the Internet seems to be an inexplicable omission". Fine Gael's deputy leader, Ms Nora Owen, said legislation to be enacted in 2000 "should not ignore such terms as "Internet" and "Web". She believed the Minister would find "many legal arguments caused by the lack of some element of definition of the Internet".

Mr David Stanton (FG, Cork East) said it was the Minister's responsibility to try and "put some manners" on the issue. He should "put some box around it so that when people go to court and discuss it, they will have some definition on which to hang their hats".

The Minister rejected the amendment. He said the advice of the Attorney General on this was "unambiguous". To restrict the meaning of the Internet "would run the risk of opening a loophole whereby infringement of copyright works could occur and if such a loophole did arise, authors would understandably be reluctant to place their works on the Internet". He believed Government Ministers would come back to the issue because major and rapid developments were taking place in this area.