Damien Mulley

A while back I asked where was our EFF after once again listening to a biased, one-sided and truth bending interview with the folks from IRMA, who blamed all the woes of the record industry on piracy and those evil terrorist funding music downloaders. Today at 1715 on the Today FM’s Last Word a representative from Digital Rights Ireland is going to bring some balance to this argument. Tune in here.

This is no-doubt going to be the first of many times when balance is brought into media interviews about online civil rights.

Think I’ll drop in and see this when I’m up in Dublin:

Family Law – Rights Vs Reality

Public meeting sponsored by Labour Equality and Labour Women.

Saturday November 12th, 10.45am sharp- 1.30pm
Teachers Club, 36 Parnell Square, Dublin 1.
Map

10.45am Registration/ Tea or Coffee
11.00am Official Opening: Liz Mc Manus TD, Deputy Leader, Labour
Party.

First session chairperson:
Senator Joanna Tuffy, Labour Party.

Panel 1.
Frances Byrne (OPEN) – ’Lone parents and the Family law courts – the reality’
Norah Gibbons (Barnardos) – ‘Children’s Rights – Myth or Reality’
Fergus Ryan (One Family) – ‘Modernising Irish Family Law – Rhetoric and Reality’
Mark Lacey (Gay and Lesbian Unions Eire)

11.30am Questions and Answers

12.00pm Second session chairperson: Joe Costello TD, Labour Party

Panel 2.
Ann Gallagher, solicitor (Labour Women) – ‘Practical issues in Family Law’
Francesca Lundstrom (Age Action Ireland) – Grandparent Rights’
Aisling Reidy (Irish Council for Civil Liberties) – ‘Parent’s Rights – a focus on fathers and the gaps in the law’

12.30pm Questions and Answers

1pm Closing Mags O’Brien,Chair, Labour Equality.

Tom started a discussion about online libel and a few others such as Gavin picked up on it and asked:

I think you can claim to be a ‘man of straw’ and inability to pay

Anyone care to give him the good and bad news?

Given the fact that a fairly well known blogger around these parts got a cease and desist letter followed by a summons to the High Court over postings on his blog, I think the emerging Irish bloggersphere needs to realise the rules of this new world we are playing in. We’re free to post what we want but people and companies are also free to sue us over it. Digital Rights Ireland has put together the Digital Rights Ireland Pamphlet on Libel which every blogger, webforum owner, webforum poster and website owner should read and print off and attach to the side of their monitor.

Now, none of us in the group as far as I know are graphic designers, so if a logo expert or graphic designer would like to take the text and tart it up into a cute and stylish pamphlet then come talk to the DRI group.