IRELAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Hannah McLoughlin, Jane Bourke, Karen Gallagher and Kevin Doyle, Pinsent Masons Ireland LLP
person who undertakes the arrangements necessary for the creation of the work. The question of authorship of works created by a non- human has not been dealt with by legislation, nor con - sidered by the courts. Given that EU law requires that the standard of originality is the author’s own intel - lectual creation, it is generally assumed that such a work will be treated as being computer-generated, so authorship will be assigned to the person who made the necessary arrangements for the creation of the work. Joint Authorship Under Irish copyright law, a work of joint authorship means a work produced by the collaboration of two or more authors in which the contribution of each author is not distinct from that of the other authors. Joint authors enjoy the same economic and moral rights as individual authors. A film is considered a work of joint authorship unless the producer and the principal director are the same person. Similarly, a broadcast is considered a work of joint authorship if more than one person makes the broadcast and the contribution of each person is not distinct from that of any of the others involved in mak - ing that broadcast. Ownership percentage between joint authors is not expressly addressed by statute in Ireland and is gen - erally dealt with by way of written agreement between the parties. 3.4 Copyright Rights Copyright protection in Ireland grants owners a suite of economic and moral rights. Pursuant to Section 37 of the Copyright Act, the own - er of copyright has the right to prevent others from copying the work, making the work available to the public or making an adaptation of the work, without the owner’s permission. Copyright owners also enjoy the following moral rights:
• paternity right – the right to be identified as the author; • integrity right – the right to object to derogatory distortion, mutilation or modification of the work; and • false attribution right – the right not to have a work falsely attributed to him or her as author. Moral rights are provided for in Chapter 7 of the Copy - right Act. 3.5 Term of Protection and Termination Terms of Protection • Literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works: life of the author + 70 years. • Films: 70 years after the death of the last of the principal director, the author of the screenplay, the author of the dialogue and the author of music specifically composed for use in the film. • Sound recordings: 50 years after the recording is first made available to the public, or 70 years after the recording is made if the recording was created on or after 1 November 2013. • Broadcasts and cable programmes: 50 years from the date of first lawful transmission. • Computer-generated works: 70 years from when the work is first made available to the public. • Typographical arrangements: 50 years from the date the work is first made available to the public. Termination of Copyright in Ireland The limited circumstances in which an owner may lose their copyright under Irish law are as follows: • when copyright expires – as above, the copyright term can vary depending on the type of work; • when copyright is legally assigned by the owner to someone else – this must be done in writing; and • when the owner’s rights are waived – this only applies to moral rights and must be done in writing. A waiver of moral rights by one joint author does not affect the other author(s). 3.6 Collective Rights Management Systems In accordance with Section 175 of the Copyright Act, and the Copyright and Related Rights (Register of Copyright Licensing Bodies) Regulations, 2002, the Controller of Intellectual Property (“the Controller”)
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