The Copyright Bill should remove any reasonable doubt as to the right of newspaper proprietors to exploit works created by employees in the course of their employment, the Minister of State for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Tom Kitt, said.
"It conveys the full copyright interest to the employer-newspaper," he added, "allowing the employed journalist to retain no more than a restricted right to use such works which excludes their inclusion in newspapers."
Closing the debate on the Second Stage of the Copyright and Related Right Bill, Mr Kitt, said Senators would be aware that under the 1963 Act, newspapers owned copyright in such works only to the extent that it applied to its inclusion in a newspaper. The other share, so to speak, of the copyright belonged to the employee journalists to exercise as they thought fit.
Careful consideration had been given to the strong representations from the National Newspapers of Ireland on this matter and both he and the Tanaiste had considered that there was no justification in maintaining this split copyright.
However, it was considered just to retain some element of the journalists' right to exploit their work outside the newspaper context, which could be regarded as a traditional entitlement.