CY Leung accused of violating own government’s copyright bill with Hello Kitty dim sum Facebook post
Buns and steamed cakes served during primary school children’s visit to Government House - but web users claim upload falls foul of law demanding an attribution of the source of the products
Web users have questioned whether Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying breached the latest copyright bill amendment by uploading photos of the Hello Kitty dim sum he bought.
The allegations came after a press conference, held by supporters of the copyright bill including artists and directors, had to be suspended on Sunday after members claiming to be from a radical internet activist group Civic Passion attempted to join the event.
Leung was in the middle of the controversy after he uploaded two photos of the dim sum – six buns and two steamed cakes – made in the image of the famed Japanese cartoon cat on his Facebook page on Sunday afternoon.
今天中午有十幾位還在唸小學的小朋友來禮賓府談新年願望，我昨天在工展會買的Hello Kitty 馬拉糕和流沙包就是為了招呼小朋友們。
Posted by CY Leung on Saturday, December 12, 2015
Leung wrote that he bought the dim sum from the Brands and Products Expo and served them to the primary school children who visited the Government House on Sunday.
Netizens, who have been opposing the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2014 and criticising it for clamping down on freedom of speech and creations, immediately questioned whether the Chief Executive had breached the very bill that his own government had been trying to push through the Legislative Council.
READ MORE: Generation gap a 'hurdle' in debate over Hong Kong's copyright law, say young concern groups
“Although the Hello Kitty-shaped buns were made with the permission of the copyright owner, if the Internet Article 23 is passed, Leung Chun-ying may have committed a crime by taking photos of the products and uploading the photos on Facebook without attributing the source of the products,” said student activist Agnes Chow Ting on her Facebook page.
The bill is often compared to the Basic Law’s Article 23 on national security that failed to pass in 2003.
The government tabled a bill in 2012, but withdrew it after strong opposition. The now-amended bill includes six exemptions that are meant to allay concerns over freedom of expression.
Under the bill, derivative material based on copyrighted works would be exempted from criminal and civil liabilities if it was created for the purposes of parody, satire, caricature, pastiche or commentary on current events – but creators of the works need to provide “sufficient acknowledgement” of the original work.
READ MORE: Hong Kong copyright bill explained: Why are people so concerned about this?
Leung had previously fallen in the copyright bill trap when he uploaded a video clip to Facebook, showing him singing a hit Cantopop song during the third anniversary dinner of the Beijing-loyalist Business and Professionals Alliance last week – triggering concern in some quarters over whether Leung’s posting would break the current or future copyright law.
Leung’s office later admitted the posting “was not that good”, and that the office had already applied for a licence from the Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong saying it had secured approval.
