Mr Damien McCallig
B.Comm., LLB, LLM
| E: | Email Staff member |
|---|---|
| W: |
Biography
Damien McCallig is a second year Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Law. His research, which is funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS), is entitled The Law of Digital Remains: Reconciling the dignity and interests of the deceased with those of the living, and is supervised by Marie McGonagle. The research aims to provide a theoretical, philosophical and practical framework for developing an appropriate regulatory regime for digital remains aimed at reconciling the rights and interests of the deceased with those of living stake-holders. Further details regarding his Ph.D. research is available here.
Damien graduated from NUI Galway with an LL.M in Law, Technology and Governance in 2010 and an LL.B. in 2009, achieving first class honours in both. He was the winner of the Irish Times Prize in Media Law, 2009, which is an annual prize awarded to the student who achieves the highest mark at examination in the subject of Media Law. Damien regularly contributes to IRIS – Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory, which addresses many of the cutting-edge issues in the media and communications fields.
Research
Research Interests
- Copyright
- Data Protection
- Internet Law and Regulation
- Information Rights
- Media Law and Regulation
- Privacy
Research Projects
PhD Thesis
‘The Law of Digital Remains: Reconciling the dignity and interests of the deceased with those of the living.’
The research aims to provide a theoretical, philosophical and practical framework for developing an appropriate regulatory regime for digital remains aimed at reconciling the rights and interests of the deceased with those of living stake-holders. Further details regarding Damien’s Ph.D. research is available here.
Research Publications
Peer Reviewed Journals
- “Private But Eventually Public: Why Copyright in Unpublished Works Matters in the Digital Age”, (2013) 10:1 SCRIPTed 39.
- “Online behavioural advertising: are Irish privacy laws in need of ‘re-Phorm’?”, (2011) 16 Communications Law 60.
Other Journals
-
“Memoria in aeterna: who owns your digital legacy”, (2013) January/February Law Society Gazette 22.
Conference Papers
- “Dealing with Digital Remains: Is Recognising Digital Assets as Probate Property the Solution?”, BILETA 2013, (Liverpool, April 2013).
- “Privacy After Death”, NUI Galway Privacy Symposium, (Galway, March 2013).
- “Second guessing the intentions of the deceased under the quasi-succession right to information”, #FOI15: the right to know, (Limerick, February 2013).
- “The Law of Digital Remains”, Death Online Research Network, (Copenhagen, January 2013).
- “Private but Eventually Public: Why Copyright in Unpublished Works Matters in the Digital Age”, Amsterdam Privacy Conference (Amsterdam, October 2012).
- “Auto-Icon in the 21st Century: What lessons for the regulation of the Digital Remains of the dead?”, GiKII VII, (UEA, London, September 2012).
- “The Deceased as Data Subjects: Analysis of the Scope and Application of EU Data Protection Law”, Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference (Bristol, September 2012).
IRIS Contributions
- “Household-Based Public Broadcasting Charge Moves a Step Closer”, IRIS 2013-4:1/19.
- “Presenter’s Comments Breached Broadcasting Act”, IRIS 2013-4:1/18.
- “Renewed Efforts to Block File-Sharing Websites”, IRIS 2013-3:1/19.
- “Digital Switchover of Terrestrial Television Complete”, IRIS 2013-1:1/27.
- “Revision of General and Children’s Commercial Communications Codes”, IRIS 2013-1:1/26.
- “Psychic Readings Live in Repeated Breaches of Broadcasting Code”, IRIS 2013-1:1/25.
- “Supreme Court to Hear Appeal on Three-Strikes Copyright Protocol”, IRIS 2012-8:1/29.
- “Revised Television Access Rules Launched”, IRIS 2012-7:1/28.
- “Public Service Broadcaster Sanctioned”, IRIS 2012-7:1/27.
- “Broadcast of Unverified “Tweet” Unfair to Presidential Candidate”, IRIS 2012-5:1/27.
- “Approval of Funding Scheme for Broadcast Archiving”, IRIS 2012-4:1/29.
- “Copyright Review Committee Publishes Consultation Paper”, IRIS 2012-4:1/30.
- “Copyright Injunctions Law Introduced”, IRIS 2012-4:1/31.
- “Updated Broadcasting Code on Referenda and Election Coverage”, IRIS 2011-9:1/24.
- “Right of Reply Scheme Introduced”, IRIS 2011-7:1/28.
- “Details of Copyright Review Announced”, IRIS 2011-7:1/27.
- “No Change in Designated Free-to-Air Sporting Events”, IRIS 2011-7:1/26.
- "New Broadcasting Code on Election Coverage”, IRIS 2011-5:1/26.
- “No Basis for Three Strike Copyright Rule”, IRIS 2011-1:1/38.
Other Articles, Contributions and Presentations
- “Change law to allow online life after death”, Sunday Times (Irish edition), 28 April 2013.
- “Social Media After Death”, John Murray Show RTÉ Radio One, 15 March 2013.
- “Innovation and Technology: Reconciling the Rights of Individuals with the Needs of Society”, Presentation to Law
- Reform Commission, Public Consultation on the Fourth Programme of Law Reform, NUI Galway, 27 February 2013.
- “Medical records model needs treatment”, Irish Times, 21 January 2013.
Media Reports
- MacCormaic, Ruadhán, “Passing on the keys to your personal digital legacy can be problematic”, Irish Times, 22 April 2013.
- Fallon, John, “Facebook to connect beyond the grave”, Irish Examiner, 11 March 2013.
- Fallon, John, “Social media photos and data may have to be included in wills”, Irish Times, 11 March 2013.
- Fallon, John, “Facebook accounts ‘will be left in wills’”, Irish Independent, 11 March 2013.
- Essers, Loek, “Online life after death faces legal uncertainty”, CIO and Computerworld, 8 October 2012.
Teaching Areas
Damien is currently the module coordinator for Internet Regulation and Governance on the LL.M. in Law, Technology and Governance. Other teaching interests include:
- Copyright
- Constitutional Law – Freedom of Expression
- Entertainment Law – Commercial Expression/Online Behavioural Advertising
- Privacy/Data Protection