2.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

“Act of 1927” means the Industrial and Commercial Property (Protection) Act, 1927;

“anonymous work” means a work where the identity of the author is unknown or, in the case of a work of joint authorship, where the identity of the authors is unknown;

“appropriate court” means—

(a) the District Court, where the damages or the value of the other relief sought in any action to which the application relates is not liable to exceed such sum as stands specified by an enactment to be the jurisdiction of the District Court for actions in contract or tort,

(b) the Circuit Court, where the damages or the value of the other relief sought in any action to which the application relates is not liable to exceed such sum as stands specified by an enactment to be the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court for actions in contract or tort, and

(c) in any other case, the High Court;

“artistic work” includes a work of any of the following descriptions, irrespective of their artistic quality—

(a) photographs, paintings, drawings, diagrams, maps, charts, plans, engravings, etchings, lithographs, woodcuts, prints or similar works, collages or sculptures (including any cast or model made for the purposes of a sculpture),

(b) works of architecture, being either buildings or models for buildings, and

(c) works of artistic craftsmanship;

“author” has the meaning assigned to it by section 21;

“authorised broadcaster” means Radio Telefís Éireann, Seirbhísí Theilifís na Gaeilge Teoranta or a person with whom the Independent Radio and Television Commission has entered into a contract for the provision of broadcasting services under the Radio and Television Act, 1988, and is licensed under that Act to provide those services;

“authorised cable programme service provider” means the provider of any cable programme service other than a cable programme service provided unlawfully;

F1["broadcast" means an electronic transmission of sounds, images or data, or any combination or representation thereof, for direct public reception or for presentation to members of the public;]

F2["broadcasting organisation" means—

(a) in the State, an authorised broadcaster, or

(b) in another Member State, a broadcasting organisation for the purposes of Directive (EU) 2019/789 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019¹;]

“building” includes any structure;

“cable programme” means any item included in a cable programme service;

“cable programme service” means a service, F3[including MMDS and digital terrestrial retransmission], which consists wholly or mainly of sending sounds, images or data or any combination of sounds, images or data, or the representations thereof, by means of a telecommunications system—

(a) for reception at 2 or more places (whether for simultaneous reception or at different times in response to requests by different users), or

(b) for presentation to members of the public,

but shall not include:

(i) a service or part of a service of which it is an essential feature that while sounds, images or data or any combination of sounds, images or data, or the representations thereof, are being conveyed by the person providing the service, there may be sent from each place of reception, by means of the same system or, as the case may be, the same part of it, data (other than signals sent for the operation or control of the service) for reception by the person providing the service or other persons receiving the service;

(ii) a service operated for the purposes of a business, trade or profession where—

(I) no person except that person carrying on the business, trade or profession is concerned in the control of the apparatus comprised in the system,

(II) sounds, images or data or any combination of sounds, images or data, or the representations thereof, are conveyed by the system exclusively for the purposes of the internal management of that business, trade or profession and not for the purpose of rendering a service or providing amenities for others, and

(III) the system is not connected to any other telecommunications system;

(iii) a service operated by an individual where—

(I) all the apparatus comprised in the system is under his or her control,

(II) sounds, images or data or any combination of sounds, images or data, or the representations thereof, conveyed by the system are conveyed solely for his or her private and domestic use by that individual, and

(III) the system is not connected to any other telecommunications system;

(iv) services, other than services operated as part of the amenities provided for residents or occupants of premises operated as a business, trade or profession, where—

(I) all the apparatus comprised in the system is situated in, or connects, premises which are in single occupation, and

(II) the system is not connected to any other telecommunications system;

(v) services which are, or to the extent that they are, operated for persons providing broadcasting or cable programme service or providing programmes for such services;

F4["collective management organisation" has the same meaning as it has in the European Union (Collective Rights Management) (Directive 2014/26/EU) Regulations 2016 (SI. No. 156 of 2016);]

“computer-generated”, in relation to a work, means that the work is generated by computer in circumstances where the author of the work is not an individual;

“computer program” means a program which is original in that it is the author's own intellectual creation and includes any design materials used for the preparation of the program;

F1["Controller" means the Controller of Intellectual Property;]

“copyright work” means a work in which copyright subsists;

F4["cultural heritage institution" has the meaning assigned to it in the European Union (Copyright and Related Rights in the Digital Single Market) Regulations 2021 (S.I. No. 567 of 2021);]

“database” means a collection of independent works, data or other materials, arranged in a systematic or methodical way and individually accessible by any means but excludes computer programs used in the making or operation of a database;

F5["digital terrestrial retransmission" means the reception and immediate retransmission on an encrypted basis without alteration by means of a multiplex of a broadcast or a cable programme initially transmitted from another Member State of the EEA;]

F1["disability" has the meaning assigned to it in section 2 of the Disability Act 2005;]

“dramatic work” includes a choreographic work or a work of mime;

F6["education" means instruction, lectures, study, research, teaching or training either in an educational establishment or by any person acting under the authority of an educational establishment, and includes all activities necessary or expedient or ancillary to such a programme, and "educational purposes" shall be construed accordingly;]

“educational establishment” means—

(a) any school,

(b) any university to which the Universities Act, 1997, F1[applies,]

F6[(ba) any relevant provider within the meaning of section 2 of the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Act 2012, and]

(c) any other educational establishment prescribed by the Minister under section 55;

“EEA Agreement” means the Agreement on the European Economic Area signed at Oporto on 2 May 1992, as adjusted by the Protocol signed at Brussels on 17 March 1993 and as amended from time to time;

F6["electronic transmission" means a specified transmission through the Internet, a transmission by wireless means and a transmission prescribed for the purposes of this definition, but does not include—

(a) a transmission by means of MMDS, or

(b) a digital terrestrial retransmission;]

“enactment” means an Act of the Oireachtas or an instrument made thereunder;

F6["excluded data information", means—

(a) a computer program (whether in whole or in part), or

(b) a program source code of a website;]

“film” means a fixation on any medium from which a moving image may, by any means, be produced, perceived or communicated through a device;

“fixation” means the embodiment of sounds or images or any combination of sounds or images, or the representations thereof, from which they can be perceived, reproduced or communicated through a device;

“general licence” means a licence granted by a licensing body that includes all works of the description to which it applies;

F6["intellectual property claim" means—

(a) any proceedings instituted, application or reference made, or appeal lodged, under the Patents Act 1992 other than an application under section 47, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 57, 59, 74, 86, 91, 96, 108, 123 or 124 of that Act,

(b) any proceedings instituted, application or reference made, or appeal lodged, under the Trade Marks Act 1996 other than an application under section 25, 51, 52, 57, 65, 67, 72, 77, 78, 79, 85(5), 88 or 97 of that Act, or under paragraph 14(3) of the Second Schedule to that Act in so far as that paragraph relates to an application under section 51 of that Act,

(c) any proceedings instituted, application or reference made, or appeal lodged, under this Act other than an application under section 133, 143, 170, 256, 257, 261, 299B, 366 or 367, or

(d) any proceedings instituted, application or reference made, or appeal lodged, under the Industrial Designs Act 2001 other than an application under section 33, 34, 35, 62, 70, 81, 84 or 86 of that Act;]

“judicial proceeding” includes proceedings before any court or tribunal which has power to hear, receive and examine evidence on oath or otherwise and has authority to decide any matter affecting the legal rights or liabilities of a person;

“licensing body” means a body referred to in section 38, 149, 265 or 340, as the case may be;

“literary work” means a work, including a computer program, but does not include a dramatic or musical work or an original database, which is written, spoken or sung;

“marketed” means sold, hired rented or lent, or offered or exposed for sale, hire, rental or loan, or otherwise distributed, and references to “marketing” shall be construed accordingly;

“Member State of the EEA” means a state which is a contracting state to the EEA Agreement;

“Minister” means the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment;

“MMDS” means a Multipoint Microwave Distribution System;

F5["multiplex" has the meaning assigned to it in section 129 of the Broadcasting Act 2009;]

“musical work” means a work consisting of music, but does not include any words, or action, intended to be sung, spoken or performed with the music;

“original database” means a database in any form which by reason of the selection or arrangement of its contents constitutes the original intellectual creation of the author;

F4["out-of-commerce work" means a work where it can be presumed in good faith that the whole work or other subject matter is not available to the public through customary channels of commerce, after a reasonable effort has been made to determine whether it is available to the public;]

“parliamentary proceeding” includes proceedings of either or both of the Houses of the Oireachtas or committees established by either or both of the Houses of the Oireachtas or proceedings of the European Parliament or committees established by the European Parliament;

“photograph” means a recording of light, or any other radiation on any medium on which an image is produced, or from which an image may by any means be produced and which is not part of a film;

“premises” means any building or place, including any land, vehicle, vessel, moveable structure, trailer, hovercraft or aircraft;

“prescribe” means prescribe by regulations and cognate words shall be construed accordingly;

“producer”, in relation to a film or sound recording, means the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the making of the film or sound recording, as the case may be, are undertaken;

“protection-defeating device” includes any device, function or product, or component incorporated into a device, function or product, the primary purpose or effect of which is to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate or otherwise circumvent, without authority, any rights protection measure F7[or which is promoted, advertised or marketed for the purpose of circumvention of any rights protection measure, or which has only a limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent any rights protection measure];

“pseudonymous work” means a work where the pseudonym adopted by the author or, in the case of a work of joint authorship the authors, does not reveal the identity of the author or authors and the identity of the author or authors is unknown;

“published edition”, in relation to the copyright in the typographical arrangement of a published edition, means a published edition of the whole or any part of one or more literary, dramatic or musical works or original databases;

“repeat broadcast” means a repeat of a broadcast which has been previously transmitted;

“repeat cable programme” means a repeat of a cable programme which has been previously included in a cable programme service;

“reprographic process” means a process—

(a) for making facsimile copies, or

(b) involving the use of an appliance for making multiple copies,

and includes, in relation to a work held in electronic form, any copying by electronic means, but does not include the making of a film or sound recording;

F6["rights identifying information", in relation to a work, means data information (other than excluded data information) about the work, including digital data (whether or not it is incorporated within the work or is otherwise associated with it) that provides information about—

(a) the authorship, condition, content, context, origin, ownership, provenance, quality or structure of the work,

(b) rights pertaining to or associated with the work, or

(c) matters similar to any matter which falls within paragraph (a) or (b);]

“rights protection measure” means any process, treatment, mechanism or system which is designed to prevent or inhibit the unauthorised exercise of any of the rights conferred by this Act;

“sound recording” means a fixation of sounds, or of the representations thereof, from which the sounds are capable of being reproduced, regardless of the medium on which the recording is made, or the method by which the sounds are reproduced;

F6["specified transmission through the Internet" means—

(a) a transmission taking place simultaneously through the Internet and by other means,

(b) a concurrent transmission of a live event, or

(c) a transmission of recorded moving images or sounds, or both, forming part of a programme service offered by the person responsible for making the transmission, being a service in which programmes are transmitted at scheduled times determined by that person;]

“statutory inquiry” means an inquiry held, or investigation conducted, pursuant to a duty imposed or power conferred by an enactment;

“statutory register” means a register maintained pursuant to a statutory requirement;

“statutory requirement” means a requirement imposed by an enactment;

“sufficient acknowledgement” has the meaning assigned to it by section 51;

“telecommunications system” means a system for conveying sounds, data or information or any combination of sounds, images or information, or the representations thereof, by means of a wire, beam or any other conducting device through which electronically generated programme-carrying signals are guided over a distance;

“work” means a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, sound recording, film, broadcast, cable programme, typographical arrangement of a published edition or an original database and includes a computer program except in Part II, Chapter 7 where “work” means “literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or film”;

“work of joint authorship” has the meaning assigned to it by section 22;

“writing” includes any form of notation or code whether by hand or otherwise and regardless of the method by which, or medium in or on which, it is recorded, and references to “written” shall be construed accordingly.

(2) A reference in this Act to the reception of a broadcast shall include the reception of a broadcast relayed by means of a telecommunications system.

(3) A reference in this Act to a prescribed archive shall include references to a prescribed museum.

(4) A reference in this Act to an archive shall include references to a museum and a reference in this Act to an archivist shall include references to a curator.

(5) A reference in this Act to a librarian or archivist shall include references to a person acting on his or her behalf.

(6) A computer program used in the making or operation of databases shall not be regarded as a database.

(7) The author of a work shall be deemed to be known where it is possible for a person, without previous knowledge of the facts, to ascertain the identity of the author of the work by reasonable enquiry.

(8) The authors of a work of joint authorship shall be deemed to be known where it is possible for a person, without previous knowledge of the facts, to ascertain the identity of one or more of the authors of the work by reasonable enquiry.

(9) References in this Act to a permanent collection shall include a collection of works or sound recordings in the possession of a library or archive that have been loaned to that library or archive for an indefinite period.

(10) Where an act which would otherwise infringe any of the rights conferred by this Act is permitted under this Act it is irrelevant whether or not there exists any term or condition in an agreement which purports to prohibit or restrict that act.

(11) A reference in this Act to the copyright owner or the rightsowner shall include a reference to a person designated by the copyright owner or the rightsowner to act on his or her behalf in infringement proceedings.

(12) (a)  A reference in this Act to a Part, Chapter, Division, section or Schedule is a reference to a Part, Chapter, Division or section of, or Schedule to, this Act unless it is indicated that a reference to some other Act is intended.

(b)  A reference in this Act to a subsection, paragraph or subparagraph is to the subsection, paragraph or subparagraph of the provision in which the reference occurs unless it is indicated that reference to some other provision is intended.

(c)  A reference in this Act to any other enactment shall, except where the context otherwise requires, be construed as a reference to that enactment as amended by or under any other enactment including this Act.