THE illegal photocopying recently discovered at the Hong Kong Polytechnic (South China Morning Post, December 30 and 31) is but the tip of an iceberg.
Each Department has photocopying machines where staff photocopy books, articles, academic papers, all of which are protected under copyright. The Hong Kong Polytechnic library has large numbers of photocopying machines on every floor where queues of students, and some staff, are always present photocopying large amounts of copyright material.
All of these machines have notices affixed explaining the law on copyright, but this is hardly a deterrent and no member of library staff ever enforces the law. The library also provides stored value cards to enable staff or students to photocopy up to 100 pages at a time for only $20. There is even a quick service machine, if you only want to copy 10 pages or less.
These are hardly suitable measures to protect the intellectual property of authors, who have spent long hours producing the written material which is being blatantly stolen. I speak from the position of an author who has written eight textbooks and observed my work being so copied, both in the library and in my own department of the Hong Kong Polytechnic where I work.
Hopefully, these recent experiences will prompt the Hong Kong Polytechnic into doing a bit more than simply sending out memos and putting notices on machines saying not to photocopy copyright material. They could, for example, have a member of staff supervising photocopying machines. Alternatively, they could increase the photocopying cost to $1 per page, which would mean purchasing the original book would be cheaper. The extra money generated could be used to buy more library books and thus generate moreincome for authors.
A little education of staff and students about intellectual property and copyright might also be useful, as most of the persons involved probably do not realise they are doing anything wrong. It might even be necessary to make an example or two of persons who are caught photocopying copyright material. If the Hong Kong Polytechnic and other educational institutions do not tighten up on this abuse, they could end up paying fines or compensation which would far exceed the cost of preventive measures.
