Copyright infringements and Sock Puppets

April 2017 5 9

HE SITTING of Ardee District Court was

delayed. The courtroom was packed,

as it often is on a Monday morning

after a busy weekend, with fresh

arrests to be processed. Solicitors

shufﬂed papers, Garda gathered in twos and

threes in quiet conversations, and at the back,

concerned families stood around, anxiously

glancing at the clocks. Eventually the word ﬁl-

tered out. Someone had got their wires crossed,

and two judges had shown up, which was one

too many. Eventually they’d get the confusion

sorted, and the day’s business could begin.

In the press box, two reporters sent by the

Irish Times and the Irish Independent waited,

along with a local journalist from the Dundalk

Democrat. Outside the building, two photogra-

phers, also sent by the nationals, loitered with

bored intent, swapping anecdotes and stamping

their feet against the cold.

Eventually, the confusion over the double-

booking was sorted out, and Marie Keane took

her seat on the bench to hear the day’s business.

The court was cleared brieﬂy while the judge

heard a handful of family law cases, bail releases

were agreed, ongoing cases were processed and

assigned future dates as lawyers gave optimistic

estimates of how long the hearings would take.

Eventually, the cases which have attracted

national attention were called. Leo Sherlock,

with an address in Ardee Road, Collon, Co Louth,

trading as ‘The Liberal’ and ‘TheLiberal.ie’, is

being sued separately by CCC Nuacht Teoranta,

a court reporting news service, and Independent

Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd, both of whom accuse

him of multiple copyright infringements. This

was the second time his case had come up

before the court. The case is being defended by

Sherlock, but unfortunately for the photogra-

phers waiting outside, he did not make a

personal appearance.

TheLiberal.ie., according to court papers ﬁled

by CCC Nuacht, is seeking compensation for four

court reports which appeared on TheLiberal.ie

on various dates in 2015 and 2016. Independent

Newspapers is charging that there were multiple

infringements of copyright, citing ﬁve photo-

graphs which appeared on TheLiberal.ie website

between 2014 and 2016.

it has teeth. For each offence, Sherlock could be

facing a ﬁne of up to €15,000, in addition to legal

costs, under the provisions of the Copyright and

Related Rights Act 2000.

At the Ardee hearing on 13 March, Independent

Newspapers indicated that the ﬁve photographs

identiﬁed in their claim notice were not the only

ones on Sherlock’s website they had issue with,

and that there had been further alleged copyright

breaches since the action was ﬁled.

Paul Meagher, the solicitor for Independent

Newspapers, told Judge Marie Keane that Sher-

lock had entered a defence since a previous

appearance before the court in February. No

details of this defence were given in open court.

The lawyers for the two news organisations

told the judge they were essentially making "the

exact same case", and the two cases could run

in parallel. Independent Newspapers planned to

call three witnesses, but this could be shortened

through afﬁdavits.

Having listened to the lawyers, Judge Keane

adjourned the case for a month. Little is likely to

happen at the April hearing, but if they’re lucky,

the lawyers may get a date for a full hearing of

the case before the summer.

Meanwhile, as Sherlock's website shows a

remarkable ability to generate shareable content

and thus generate advertising revenues, its

operations have come under scrutiny on Twitter,

particularly among the media savvy. Initial

gripes about competitions run by the website on

Facebook, apparently in violation of the social

network's terms of reference, eventually led to a

38-page dossier on the site being produced in

mid-March by an anonymous Twitter user identi-

fied only as @TheLiberal_x (The Liberal

Exposed).

TheLiberal.ie runs regular competitions in a

bid to increase its number of Facebook "Likes"

(currently over 400,000), and Twitter followers

(17,900), offering prizes from iPads to shopping

vouchers. These efforts pay off in over one mil

lion page impressions per week to the website,

according to Google Adwords.

The dossier author contacted several retailers

named as prize sponsors by TheLiberal.ie. The

companies involved said they had no connection

with the website. In addition, the dossier pre-

sents convincing evidence that several

prizewinners are "sock puppets", ﬁctitious

accounts created by Sherlock, some of which

have changed names over time.

This tallies with the results of an investigation

by The Dublin Inquirer into another site, Pretty.

ie, also set up by Sherlock. The Inquirer was

unable to reach any prizewinners on that site.

In addition to ‘Liking’ photos posted by Sher

lock, these prizewinning accounts also show up

in online debates to "vehemently defend TheLib-

eral.ie whenever it comes under criticism”.

On March 28, shortly after the Liberal Exposed

dossier PDF was published online, TheLiberal.ie

deleted over 14,000 Facebook posts. No expla-

nation was given for this action, although the

posts were downloaded and archived by the Lib-

eral Exposed before the purge.

Several attempts were made to contact Leo

Sherlock for comment about this article, by

email, telephone and through his Facebook

page. At time of going to print, he has not

responded.

On March 28, shortly after

the Liberal Exposed dossier

PDF was published online,

TheLiberal.ie deleted over

14,000 Facebook posts,

without explanation

Case against Leo Sherlock’s popular Liberal.ie

by CCC Nuacht and Independent Newspapers

for copyright breaches adjourned

by Gerard Cunningham

infringements and

Sock Puppets

liberal.ie’s Leo Sherlock