Whilst I do not normally write about events outside those concerning our four-legged friends, tonight I am prompted to do so as a result of our asinine Parliamentarians acting like total dogs with regard to our Internet Freedoms. (Which, of course, is a complete slur on all our four-legged supporters of this site).

Sadly, this evening Junior Minister Sherlock signed in a Statutory Instrument that will be the most egregious piece of legislation hindering the Freedom of Speech on the Internet in Ireland. Of course, it was ostensibly to "stop" copyright infringement and to allow the "giant" copyright holders to "take down" web sites in Ireland, pretty much at will and without due recourse to the Law. (Actually, EMI threatening to sue Ireland ... can you believe that)?

Lest we forget, the Americans tried to enact something similar last week ... and it was thwarted by the White House and massive Internet "blackouts" at the last minute. Do you remember that Wikipedia went "dark" and Google even had an "advisory" condemning the proposed law.

Well, No Shit Sherlock states that this is NOT the same as the American SOPA law. But, heck, what's in the wording when, for example: "Imagine you go down to the pub to meet a friend. While you’re there your friend gives you a CD with a mix of songs he made up. Now imagine the record companies applying to have the pub shut so you couldn’t meet your friend there in case he gives you another CD. Welcome to our future Internet."

For eighty minutes this Labour Minister gave vent and took answers in our Dàil. But then completely ignored all the objections and concerns that this is going to be the biggest sham legislation enacted to stifle the Free Internet. Also, Sean Sherlock not knowing that it’s possible for a site to be pursued under this legislation even if they do their best to take down copyright material (he asked “why would they want to do that?”) is quite worrying, as well summing up the core of the lack of understanding of the statutory instrument they’re implementing on the government’s part.

So, Sherlock joins my Internet Hall of Shame Politicians alongside other ill-informed and seriously misguided TDs. So the government is changing its laws to suit a corporation (EMI in this case), not the citizens of the state. Remember that the next time anyone from the Labour Party tries to claim that Labour represent the workers or the citizens of Ireland.

Sham debate. Sherlock only pretended to listen and at the very end said that the wording of the instrument would not be changed. The man is completely oblivious to the obvious – the wording the technical group proposed was far better, yet he is too proud to make the changes.

To paraphrase Sherlock “As long as IrishDogs.ie do what they are told by the copyright holder they will not have to pay legal costs.” He completely misses the point. What if I "don’t" agree with the takedown notice? Are we to take down everything without question? Youtube and Facebook will be empty.

I won't go on any further as I'm sure you get the point ... but you can glean a quick and easy understanding of this new Law in the following article from The Journal.ie (which I'd better not reproduce for fear of being sued by them for copyright infringement).

Everything you need to know about Ireland’s SOPA

RIP Internet Freedom of Speech in Ireland, thanks to a Labour Junior Minister Sherlock ...