The Internet, What’s legal and What’s not.

Originally posted by ferdia2010 (same person)  february 8th 2009 at 8.00 am
This is another topic of interest of mine, there has been much said about the topic of illegal downloads in the past few months but believe it or not the law on the subject is far from clear. The only categories which are well defined are child pornography (Child Trafficking And Pornography Act, 1998) and Incitement to Hatred (Prohibition Of Incitement To Hatred Act, 1989). I actually rang a few agencies and the Department of Justice today to gain further clarification and was eventually put through to the Internet safety office and basically given the answer that wasn’t a list of  specifically banned ” items ” but operated on the principle that if it’s illegal offline it certainly isn’t legal online.
That really cleared the matter up for me (ha-ha-ha).
Well I rang the Irish film censor office and was directed towards their website  www.ifco.ie were i got the following
The Act, which runs to nearly seventy pages, provides among its detailed provisions that the Director of Film Classification shall certify a video work as fit for viewing, unless:
  • it would be likely to cause persons to commit a crime
  • it would be likely to stir up hatred against a group of persons on account of their race, colour, nationality, religion, ethnic or national origins, membership of the travelling community or sexual orientation
  • it would tend to deprave or corrupt because it is obscene or indecent
  • it depicts acts of gross violence or cruelty (including mutilation and torture) towards humans or animals
It also provides for the issuing of Wholesale and Retail Video Licenses and it sets out a range of relevant offences and penalties.
So all you have to do is define “obscene” and “indecent”, answers on a postcard please.
Here is a section of the Video Recordings Act 1989, on what powers the police have in the matter and what legal sanctions the accused may face.
If a justice of the District Court or a Peace Commissioner is satisfied on the sworn information of a member of the Garda Síochána not below the rank of sergeant that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that—
A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable—
Possible links of interest:
and here is a link to what pertains in Britain
http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/online-pornography-what-s-legal-and-what-s-not-1172551http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/online-pornography-what-s-legal-and-what-s-not-1172551
Will give a more updated section on File sharing/ Copyright theft also banned websites (file sharers in the main ) blacklists and content control software.