"Irish SOPA" Signed Into Law Despite Resistance

First time accepted submitter cupantae writes "Despite the protests of over 80,000 Irish people, Junior Minister Seán Sherlock has confirmed that the controversial statutory instrument that reinforces online copyright laws in Ireland has been signed into law. The statutory instrument will make it possible for copyright holders to seek court injunctions against companies such as internet service providers or social networks whose systems are hosting copyright-infringing material. This comes in the wake of the music industry bullying the Irish government."

Re:WHAT CAME FIRST ?? THE COMPILER OR ITS SOURCE ?

[SuricouRaven]

The source, of course. In assembler. That's how the first compilers were made, and later rewritten once they were able to compile themselves.

Re:The luck of the Irish.

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

No, just a junior minister who wants t become a senior minister. Having heavy pockets like those behind his campaigns will certainly help getting that little blister re-elected.

Irish politics and election campaigns do not work like that.

Generally, candidates who stand for election have their campaign paid for largely out of a general party political fund. You can get operatives like Bertie Ahern and a few independents who have their own separate funding structure, but in general people fight for party electoral nominations as they are the ticket into the Dail.

From here, the path from a back bencher to the top generally goes:
TD - > Junior Minister (a made up position with no constitutional weight) - > Minister -> Senior Minister (esp.Finance Minister) - > Taoiseach -> Scandal -> Retirement.

It is important to note that none of these steps requires a significant war chest beyond that provided by party political funds. It requires networking, skull-duggary, deals with rogues, backstabbing, ruthlessness and charm, but at no stage in the process after TD does someone need to schmooze the general public with a marketing campaign. At most they simply require a personal PR advisor (The last Taoiseach Brian Cowen, apparently didn't have one).

This isn't to say that money isn't involved, with certain Taoisigh being notorious for getting their palms greased before and after the office. But getting to the top in Ireland does not require massive personal funding, particularly corporate funding. Yet.