Sinn Féin Senator Fintan Warfield has brought the Copyright and Related Rights (Amendment) (Web Archive) Bill 2024 before the Seanad.
 
This Bill is intended to amend the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 to ensure that the ‘.ie’ domain is captured and archived by the National Library of Ireland.
 
Speaking Seanad, Senator Warfield said:
 
“Online websites and other materials disappear at an alarming rate. According to the National Library of Ireland, 50% of web records are lost every year.
 
“Citizens and researchers within the country, and abroad, must be guaranteed permanent access to the online intellectual and cultural memory of our country.
 
“The National Library of Ireland have a legal obligation to collect every physical publication in the State. However, no such obligation, or even right, exists with regard to digital material from the internet.
 
“Some 60% of national libraries across Europe have in place similar laws, which allows them to gather and archive the content of the State domains websites.
 
“However, when in 2019 the National Library of Ireland undertook a comprehensive trawl of the approximately 230,000 .ie domains they were in breach of copyright legislation.
 
“Sinn Féin is calling on Government support to preserve the intellectual and cultural memory of our country so that everyone – citizens, historians, researchers, and others have access to this invaluable resource.”

ENDS

Note to editor:

Click here to view the bill in full.