Piracy
Music Piracy
Music Piracy is a 5 billion dollar worldwide problem. It rears its ugly head everywhere, often completely ruining the livelihoods of performers and people working in the music industry. Ireland, with its rich musical tradition, is also a lucrative market for piracy, with music industry losses running to €3.8 million annually, this figure increases to €63.5 million when pirated software and videos are included.
Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000 | Trademarks Act, 1996 | Casual Trading Act, 1995
Under the Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000, and the Trademarks Act, 1996, warrants or orders can be obtained from the District Court authorising Gardaí to enter premises or vehicles to seize pirated products.
Under the Casual Trading Act, 1995, persons selling any products without the appropriate Casual Trading License may have their stock seized without warrant.
Highly experienced investigators
IRMA maintains a team of highly experienced investigators, available at all times to assist in the detection, identification and seizure of pirated music. They prepare all documentation required when applying to the Courts for warrants and orders. IRMA personnel are accepted by the Courts as experts in the identification of piracy.
With the invaluable help of the Gardaí and other government agencies, IRMA will continue to protect the lifeblood of Irish music.
What is Piracy?
- Unauthorised duplication of music from legitimate recordings without the permission of rights owners.
- Copied and packaged to resemble the original sound recording
- Intending to deceive
- Recording, duplicating and selling a live concert or broadcast without permission of the rights’ owner.
- Unauthorised use of music via the internet
- Fact: One in three recordings worldwide is pirate
The rights of the record companies and performers are protected through Copyright Law. Record companies and performers are paid by way of royalties, so the amount that they are paid depends on the success or otherwise of their records. In order to achieve success with a record it is important that it reach a worldwide and not just a domestic market. As record companies and performers are dependant upon royalties to survive, it is important that Copyright law is harmonised and enforced on a worldwide basis.
It is for this reason that IRMA is a member of IFPI, International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents the recording Industry worldwide.
The Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 governs copyright in Ireland. It was enacted, not only to update Irish law but also to bring into force in Ireland numerous EU Directives. These Directives are in force in all countries of the EU thus making it easier to enforce copyrights throughout the EU.
Ireland is also a member of two International Conventions, which serve to harmonise International law and ensure that copyright can be enforced throughout most of the developed world. These are the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations made in Rome in 1961 and The World Intellectual Property Organisation Performances and Phonograms Treaty adopted in Geneva in 1996.
IFPI lobbies at international and EU level to ensure that international conventions and EU Directives take into account the interests of the Recording Industry thus ensuring that royalties can be collected for both record companies and performers, allowing the business of making music to grow and develop.
- Poor quality & graphics
- Promos & cover versions
- No record label
- Low cost
- SID code obliterated (SID = Source Identification Code : A four character code that appears on CD’s and identifies the plant that mastered and/or replicated the CD).
- No SID code
- Incorrect spelling
What can you do about Piracy?
If you would like to make a report about a person or company that is selling illegal music, please contact us at: damien@irma.ie or fill out our form here