Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000

Application to District Court for seizure of illicit recordings, articles or devices, etc.

256.—(1) Without prejudice to section 257 where the owner of the rights in a recording of a performance conferred by this Part applies to the District Court, it may, where satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that there are being hawked, carried about or marketed—

(a) illicit recordings of the performance,

(b) articles specifically designed or adapted for making recordings of a performance, which the person hawking, carrying about or marketing those articles, knows or has reason to believe that they have been or are to be used to make illicit recordings of a performance, or

(c) protection-defeating devices,

authorise by order a member of the Garda Síochána to seize without warrant the recordings, articles or devices and to bring them before the District Court.

(2) On being satisfied that a recording, article or device referred to in subsection (1) is—

(a) an illicit recording,

(b) an article that has been or is to be used to make illicit recordings, or

(c) a protection-defeating device,

the District Court may order the recording, article or device to be destroyed or to be delivered up to the rightsowner or otherwise dealt with as the Court may think fit.

(3) In an application to the District Court under subsection (1) or, in any ex parte application or interlocutory motion to a court of competent jurisdiction for an order which would permit the applicant to enter and search premises or place specified therein and take possession of material found therein on terms set out in such order, the court hearing such an application may receive hearsay evidence to the effect that the witness or deponent believes that the material may be found in a particular location.

(4) A witness or deponent shall not be obliged to indicate the source of the information upon which that witness formed the belief that material may be found in a particular location.

(5) After the implementation of an order made under this section, the court may, on the application of a person aggrieved by it, award damages against the applicant for the order as it considers just, on being satisfied that—

(a) no infringement of a right conferred by this Part has been established, and

(b) the information on which the rightsowner applied for the order was given maliciously.