Say No to Ireland's SOPA

As others have said, a large part of the problem is that the legislative change is not made public, and debated; instead the change to the existing law can be made by ministerial order - so there's no definitive text to link to, at the moment.

This FAQ: http://www.tjmcintyre.com/2012/01/irelands-sopa-faq.html written by someone who is a university law lecturer, and solicitor, is about as good as you are going to find.

This article: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2011/1219/1224... in a national newspaper (which almost reads like it could have been written by a lobbyist) provides context on what is happening here.

Basically, IANAL, but my understanding is that EMI (the recording company) took a case against UPC (a big ISP here), demanding that UPC block websites linking to illegal content (e.g. pirate bay). EMI lost the case, as the judge decided that copyright law did not provide that remedy.

But the judge in the case interpreted EU law as requiring such a remedy (I believe this is a controversial interpretation), and so the government (or rather, relevant junior minister) is going to update the law accordingly.

And that update, which we probably will not see, until after it is signed, is what the current campaign is about.

Personally, I think its great to see this campaign, and terrible that law with such potentially wide consequences could be enacted without debate. (I should note, this is all only a laymans interpretation; I'm not familiar with any legal subtitles.)