Piracy law fails to keep pace with hi-tech mobiles
Critics want rules making video phones technically illegal in cinemas updated
Next time you put your shiny new video-capable mobile phone in your pocket and head off to the movies, consider this: you could be breaking the law.
You're unlikely to be prosecuted, but handsets that can make video recordings are technically prohibited from theatres under an ordinance designed to stop pirates from copying movies.
Now the government is being urged to remove the grey area by reviewing the Prevention of Copyright Piracy Ordinance.
'Technology has advanced a lot over the past three years and mobile phones with video-recording functions have become a daily necessity,' university lecturer Alex Ng Chun-wing said. 'The government should clarify this.'
The ordinance prohibits cinema patrons from bringing in equipment that could be used to record the film. It is aimed at pirates who use video cameras to copy new-release movies, and carries penalties of up to three months in jail. But it does not specify whether it covers phones with a video-recording function, which have become increasingly popular since the ordinance was last amended in 2001.
A recent survey by Digital Weekly magazine found about 34 per cent of 825 respondents were using such handsets. Only 40 per cent knew that taking their phone into a cinema was technically against the law if it could record video.
Mr Ng, a senior lecturer in Shu Yan College's journalism and communication department and a director of the Pop Art Group, which publishes Digital Weekly, said the government should let the public know if video-capable phones fell into the category of banned recording equipment. The Customs and Excise Department said it would investigate if it received a complaint about the use of such devices, although it never had.
'But the essence of the ordinance is to prevent bootlegging; we won't prosecute people just because they bring a mobile phone into a cinema for communication purposes,' a spokesman said.
Almost 70 per cent of respondents to the Digital Weekly survey said the law should be reviewed.
Lawyer and former legislator Bruce Liu Sing-lee said the ordinance should be revised to allow people to take phones with recording facilities into cinemas and theatres, as long as they were not used for bootlegging.
Michael Cheung Yiu-fai, operations manager of UA Cinemas, supported revising the ordinance so cinema-goers could enjoy going to the movies without worrying if they were breaking the law.
Two people were arrested for illegal recording in cinemas in 2003.
