For all their indignation over the Intellectual Property (Miscellaneous Amendments) Ordinance, legislators have to accept a degree of responsibility for the chaos surrounding the new copyright laws.
Two members of the Bills Committee spotted impending problems affecting newspapers, schools and tertiary institutions when the draft was scrutinised last February. Instead of insisting that the relevant parties be consulted and the loopholes plugged before the laws went into the statute book, the committee bowed to the Government's urging of haste.
Tomorrow's meeting between legislators and representatives from the education and business sectors is an attempt to find a way out of the confusion that this ill-thought-out legislation has created. Yet, lest it be blown out of proportion, the confusion needs to be put in perspective.
The fundamental consideration is that the proprietary rights of newspapers over their contents must be safeguarded. Similar laws banning unauthorised photocopying have been in place overseas for many years.
The problem with our new legislation is that it has introduced catch-all rules that put all sorts of innocent, everyday activities on the wrong side of the law. Difficulties in enforcement have also been compounded by a few teething problems.
The amended law has criminalised the unauthorised photocopying of newspapers. But when it came into effect on April 1, most schools, businesses, including newspaper clipping services, and even government departments had not reached licensing agreements with newspapers. On their part, many newspapers failed to work out charging schedules or mechanisms to collect royalties.
