By making copyright law technology-neutral in its latest amendment, Hong Kong will be able to catch up with international standards and be better equipped to fight large-scale commercial internet piracy that robs creators of their just rewards.
Cultural and creative industry insiders say the sector contributed 5.1 per cent to the city’s GDP – compared with the 5 per cent contribution of the sluggish tourism industry – and the updated law will lay an important foundation to foster growth of the creative economy.
The most important feature of the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2014 is that it grants a technology-neutral exclusive right to copyright owners to communicate their works through any mode of electronic transmission, says Ricky Fung, CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
READ MORE: Hong Kong copyright bill: Why we need it and what to do with it
He says that under the current copyright law, copyright owners can only report cases to Customs – the law enforcement agency of copyright infringements – if they can find physical copies of pirated works, such as books, videos in DVD or VCD, or audio CDs.
“But electronic distribution [of pirated works] is ill-defined,” Fung says.
In 2005, Hong Kong internet user Chan Nai-ming, known as “The Big Crook”, was convicted of illegal mass distribution of copyrighted works via BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing technology, making it the world’s first criminal case against the use of BitTorrent technology.
Chan uploaded three movies and was jailed for three months.
Today a great deal of internet piracy is conducted via streaming, where users do not need to download or create a copy of a copyrighted work in order to enjoy it, says Thomas Tang, a member of the executive committee of the Hong Kong Comics and Animation Federation.