The Government has said it wants to make Hong Kong a world city and a regional broadcasting hub.
To achieve these policy objectives, there must be adequate measures in force to protect copyright. This is particularly important for broadcasters who rely on subscription fees from consumers as their primary source of revenue.
Hong Kong Cable is faced with a growing problem of domestic piracy of subscription-television services. With the increasing availability of aggressively priced, unauthorised reception devices, many SAR consumers now receive Hong Kong Cable's programmes fraudulently. However, the company is not the only victim. Our local and international media and programming partners, whose own revenue is directly or indirectly based on the subscription revenue received by Hong Kong Cable, are also suffering. This will affect how they view Hong Kong and whether they want to continue to invest in or trade with the SAR.
Not only are these unauthorised devices freely available in arcades across the border in Shenzhen, they are also sold in Hong Kong for a few hundred dollars, peddled openly in housing estates. We are also concerned about the publication of instructions enabling people to modify personal computers at home so they can use unauthorised decoders. These illegal activities make a mockery of the Government's efforts to protect intellectual property.
Hong Kong Cable has taken, and will continue to take, appropriate action to improve its encryption system, such as our latest initiative to migrate to digital broadcasting at a cost of more than $500 million. However, it is also high time law-enforcement agencies stepped up preventive and corrective action. So far, there is no evidence of any action having been taken, even though information has been passed on to the relevant authorities.
Legislation governing theft of subscription-TV services, only makes trading in these devices a criminal offence. Many other jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji have criminalised fraudulent viewing of pay-TV programmes. Civil suits are also allowed in these countries.