Digital Rights Ireland is a

digital rights Digital rights are those human rights and legal rights that allow individuals to access, use, create, and publish digital media or to access and use computers, other electronic devices, and telecommunications networks. The concept is particular ...

advocacy and lobbying group based in Ireland. The group works for civil liberties in a

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

age.

Telecommunications data retention

In 2012, the group brought an action before the Irish High Court, which subsequently made a reference to the

Court of Justice of the European Union The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) (french: Cour de justice de l'Union européenne or "''CJUE''"; Latin: Curia) is the Judiciary, judicial branch of the European Union (EU). Seated in the Kirchberg, Luxembourg, Kirchberg quart ...

to take legal actionDigital rights group sues Irish government
— ElectricNews.net report, 14 September 2006, accessed 20 December 2006.
— ''The Irish Times'' newspaper article, 29 July 2006. over

telecommunications data retention Data retention defines the policies of persistent data and records management for meeting legal and business data archival requirements. Although sometimes interchangeable, it is not to be confused with the Data Protection Act 1998. The different ...

provided for by the ''Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act of 2005''.Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act, 2005
/ref> Digital Rights Ireland argues that the act led to Gardaí accessing retained data without having a specific crime to investigate, citing remarks by the Data Protection Commissioner. On 8 April 2014, the

declared the Directive invalid in response to a case brought by Digital Rights Ireland against the Irish authorities and others.

File sharing

The

Irish Recorded Music Association The Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) is a non-profit association set up in 1999 to promote certain interests of the music industry in Ireland. It is particularly active in addressing copyright issues, and it compiles the official music ...

has sent letters to people it accuses of

file sharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include r ...

their music, demanding damages for financial losses. One issue is how the files belonging to the alleged file-sharers were searched.

MediaSentry MediaSentry was a United States company that provided services to the music recording, motion picture, television, and software industries for locating and identifying IP addresses that are engaged in the use of online networks to share material in ...

software was used to search their machines, but as it doesn't limit itself to searching only folders used for file sharing, this led to questions of violation of privacy. MediaSentry itself is based in the United States, which has less legislation about

data protection Information privacy is the relationship between the collection and dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy, contextual information norms, and the legal and political issues surrounding them. It is also known as data pr ...

than the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. This has been an issue in cases in the Netherlands and France. Another issue is

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

s being compelled to identify users. Current action still causes concern to DRI. Former TD Dr. Jerry Cowley has requested that the complaints referee investigate whether his telephone is being tapped. DRI expressed concern, noting that there is no Irish equivalent of the Wilson Doctrine in Irish law.

Fine Gael Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil � ...

has also shown concern at the number of telephone taps authorised by former Minister for Justice Michael McDowell. DRI said that the reasons for withholding the information was unacceptable.

Other areas of work

Other issues addressed by the group include: *ID cards *Electronic passportsDRI comments on vulnerabilities of electronic passports
/ref> *Online defamationDigital Rights Ireland » Defamation
/ref> *Leaking of confidential information by civil servants

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Digital Rights Ireland official websiteDáil debate on ''Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act, 2005''Also available in Acrobat format.
Internet privacy organizations Politics and technology Internet-related activism Computer law organizations Intellectual property activism Privacy organizations Radio-frequency identification Civil liberties advocacy groups Intellectual property organizations Political organisations based in the Republic of Ireland Copyright law organizations Digital rights organizations

Telecommunications data retention

File sharing

Other areas of work

See also

References

External links