The country is looking to bring into law their own version of SOPA before the end of January. The law would allow Irish courts to block access to Web sites accused of infringing content according to TJ McIntyre, lecturer in the School of Law, University College Dublin.

The part of it that has people up in arms is that the Irish parliament won’t have a chance to debate it as the law is being brought in by a statutory instrument which only requires the minister to sign it into law.

The law was drafted by Sean Sherlock, Junior Minister of the Department for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

The law in question is just like SOPA in that it gives vague powers to the courts to block access to Web sites through ISPs, but it could also give the power to block social networking sites, forums and video hosting sites. McIntyre says that the the law is so vague that “leaves the future of the Irish Internet in the discretion of Irish judges.”

A petition was created to urge Sherlock to abandon the legislation and allow it to be democratically voted on instead of being pushed through with no vote. It currently has over 45,000 signatures.

Anonymous has been doing their part in the fight by attacking Irish government Web sites all night. The Journal is reporting that Irish’s Department of Justice Web site was taken down before midnight with the Department of Finance and other minor government Web sites going down throughout the night.

Anonymous’ branch in Sweden seems to be taking responsibility with other branches joining in to help.

The attacks seemed to have had some sort of effect as Sherlock posted the draft legislation in full today so citizens may read the bill and make their own decision on it.

The legislation is also going up for live debate today before the Irish parliament. Stephen Donelly, a TD (member of parliament) for Wicklow and East Carlow, confirmed the news via Twitter and his Web site.

This story is still developing and we’ll let you know what becomes of it after the debate today.

Willie Kavanagh, head of EMI in Ireland, said yesterday that the government had ignored a request from EMI to produce the law it was preparing, and that he suspected that the measure would not “satisfy the music industry’s requirement for injunctive relief.”

EMI filed the suit with Ireland’s High Court. The suit is the second EMI has filed in recent years concerning music piracy in Ireland. In 2010 the High Court shot down an attempt by EMI to enforce a 3 strikes rule on internet service providers in the country.

[Source: Irish Times]

According to a blog post, the service will work just like the North American service – a once-a-month subscription fee. As would be expected, new users are being offered a one-month free trial, and after that it will cost subscribers £5.99 in the U.K. ($9.24) and €6.99 in Ireland ($8.88).

With this move, Netflix will attempt to expand the already impressive reach of their streaming service. Last week the company announced that some 20 million subscribers had streamed over 2 billion hours of content in Q4. That’s over 100 hours of content per person during the period.

Netflix’s biggest rival across the pond will be Lovefilm, the Netflix-like European company that was acquired by Amazon in January of 2011. Amazon just singed a multi-year agreement with Sony as well as deals with the BBC and ITV in order to expand the Lovefilm catalog.

Netflix’s move to UK and Ireland will come with Facebook integration, or “social driven suggestions.” That partnership is still struggling to get off the ground in the States, due to some decades-old privacy laws. However, the initiative cleared a major hurdle in December as the House passed a bill that would allow the integration to continue.

The Montevetro Building, as it’s known, is 15 stories high and offers 210,000 square feet of office space.  It’s located in Dublin’s Grand Canal Dock district, is currently unoccupied, and even has its own rail station to boot.

This development holds with Google’s habit of giving its employees convenient and comfortable workspaces, then.  Plus its tendency to grow at a brisk pace.

According to an Irish Examiner article, John Herlihy, the head of Google Ireland, explained the purchase by saying, "We are at capacity in our EMEA headquarters on Barrow Street and the additional space will allow us to relocate some teams to Montevetro and to create an even more spacious working environment for Googlers in our existing buildings.  Acquiring Montevetro also means we have the space and flexibility to support our future operations."

Herlihy then added, "Here in Dublin we are constantly seeking the best and brightest talent and at any one time we have a number of exciting opportunities available for the right people to come work with us. . . .  It’s a very exciting time in our company and it’s great to be a part of it."

Jemima Kiss wrote earlier today after speaking to Director of Online Operations Colm Long, "Facebook is to recruit another 100 staff in its Europe, the Middle East and Africa headquarters in Dublin over the next 12 months . . . expanding the current team of 200 international sales, finance and developer management staff."

Those openings are sure to prove popular, given Facebook’s reputation as an employer and the gloomy economic situation in Ireland.  Not to mention the reputation of Ireland itself; it’s possible lots of people from other nations will want to move to the country.

Anyway, it looks like a serious advertising push is set to take place at Facebook.  In addition to this new development, rumors indicated just last week that the company’s started renting some prestigious Madison Avenue office space in New York City.

Also, Long told Kiss, "It’s hard to make predictions for Facebook, but there will be a lot of opportunities and we will be trying to grow those for this region.  We’ve built a reputation internally as a group that can solve complex problems and drive online revenue, so as the company rolls out new initiatives we will hopefully be at the forefront of their mind."

Facebook first opened an office in Ireland in late 2007.

We can’t guarantee the timing of this development, as a couple of details don’t add up.  Problem one: the new Street View images aren’t available at the moment.  Also, although Josh Halliday quoted an official Google blog post, said post doesn’t seem to exist anymore.

Still, according to Halliday, the blog post stated, "We hope this new imagery will help people in Ireland, Brazil, and even the penguins of Antarctica to navigate nearby, as well as enable people around the world to learn more about these areas."

And the images should go live soon, considering that Google isn’t yet facing any legal challenges in these regions.  Indeed, Ireland’s Minister for Tourism, Culture, and Sport is excited about Street View, and Google just took pictures of wildlife in Antarctica.

A couple more facts: this update should cover almost 50,000 miles of Irish roads and at least Half Moon Island in the Antarctic.

UPDATE: Google came through, and all the new Street View images can now be found in Google Maps.

According to Ciara O’Brien, the center should become functional before the end of this year, and workers there will focus on location-based products like Google Local and Google Maps.  The center could spearhead a challenge to Facebook Places, then, as Google pieces together some sort of social network.

The center could help Google achieve dominance in the mobile market, too.  David Martin, director of the company’s geo operations in Europe, said, "With the increasing proliferation of smart phones and Google’s Android platform for mobiles, more and more people are using local and mapping products on a daily basis.  We want to ensure they have a great experience and that the information we give them is accurate, useful and up to date."

Regardless, this move emphasizes Ireland’s importance to Google.  Google had already gotten around 1,500 people to staff its EMEA headquarters in the country, and it looks like tax incentives, the technical infrastructure, and the pool of potential employees there remain quite attractive to the company.

The new center is supposed to be located in the East Point Business Park if any locals feel like scoping out the area.

Good luck to any Irish readers who decide to apply for positions, too.

Alex Stamos, a partner at a security consulting firm called iSEC Partners, confirmed the first part of this story.  In a letter provided by Google, he wrote, "Before my arrival, Google staff had consolidated the wi-fi packet captures onto four hard drives. . . .  Upon my acquisition of the drives from Google staff, I noted that the hard drives had been stored in a secure manner within a secure portion of the facility."

Next, Stamos stated, "I created two new encrypted volumes on separate hard drives, and copied over all of the data with the exception of data that was identified as being captured within the Republic of Ireland.  I then witnessed the physical destruction of the four original hard drives."

As for what’s happening with regards to the UK dataset, Charles Arthur reported today that the UK Information Commissioner’s Office has ordered Google to destroy it, and while that might sound severe, it’s actually a good sign for the company.  Consider that the Information Commissioner’s Office might have tried to use the data as evidence in an investigation, or at least asked Google to let its people witness the process.

Of course, it’s looking likely at this point that many independent privacy groups, along with German authorities and the FTC, will not be so quick to forgive Google’s mistake.

Google’s idea here is to simplify the task of driving around.  A post on the Google Mobile Blog explained, "Like other satnav devices, Navigation includes 3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance, and automatic rerouting.  But because Google Maps Navigation is connected to the Internet, it also features powerful functionality you can’t get from other satnav services, including the most up to date map, business, and traffic data, access to satellite and street views, and of course, search."

And Google Maps Navigation offers voice search, too, perhaps making the tool safer to use than some alternatives.

Of course, this rollout isn’t exactly huge.  However, the release of something in the UK has often represented the start of a domino effect, with Google offering it in several other countries soon after.

We’ll see what happens.  At any rate, there’s at least a certain segment of the population that should appreciate this development, and Google’s shown it remains interested in the mobile market.

From there, they will run all of their international operations and provide support to Facebook users in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

"After exploring various locations throughout the region, we decided Ireland was the best place to establish our new headquarters," says Sheryl Snadberg, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer. "As we grow and strive to make Facebook into a place for people around the world to connect and share information, we need local operations to better advance our efforts. The talent pool in Dublin is world-class and recruiting local talent will help us better understand the needs of local users and the regional dynamics that, in turn, can give us better insight into what features matter most."

The Irish Times spoke with Don Faul, Facebook’s chief of online operations. "Mr Faul refused to be drawn on speculation as to how many positions would be created as a result of the move to Dublin, other than to say the company ‘would be starting small,’" reports the Times.

International operations are of the utmost importance to a company like Facebook, who has managed to top MySpace usage in about every location besides the U.S. (though they are creeping up on them here as well), if they hope to maintain growth and stay ahead. However, as AllFacebook points out, there is a possibility that they could be growing too big for their britches:

The company continues to grow rapidly and given their rapid push to grow internationally, one has to wonder if the company will still be able to operate at break-even. European traffic for Facebook has continued to grow recently. The company has definitely faced challenges though as it hired Smaboo, an agency in Germany, to throw parties and attract the attention of local citizens.

Facebook has job openings for internationalizations listed on its website, specifically in the area of language management. Responsibilities for such a position include working with vendors and users to ensure that all required components are translated and tested, reviewing and approving final translations before they get published, and performing translations as needed. Interestingly, only Palo Alto, California is listed as a location at this point, but you would almost have to expect Dublin positions to be posted before long.