have this right in respect of both BBC and ITV
programmes but the situation is different to the
extent that Rediffusion do not in this country
:)
originate a competing programme of their own
as they do in Hong Kong.
The licence was, of
course, subject to the law of copyright as it
currently existed in Hong Kong. In 1957 there
was no other TV station in Hong Kong so it seems
fair to infer that the Government's intention
at that time was to permit RTV to exercise this
right of relay granted to them by licence
whenever a further TV station was set up.
However, as early as 1962, which was long before
any competing station was in prospect, the
Hong Kong Government began to have second thoughts
about the wisdom of their action. In 1965, by
which time the setting up of a second TV station
was a live issue, that Government had decided
it was "against the public interest" for one
broadcasting organisation to have the right to
relay a programme contemporaneously without the
consent of the originating organisation§. They
therefore decided to give effect to this principle
through the medium of the 1956 United Kingdom Act
(suitably modified for application to the Colony)
together with a Hong Kong Copyright Bill which
would be enacted and brought into force at the
same time as the United Kingdom Act was applied
to the Colony. The Bill would contain a clause
(Clause 4(2)) which, when read in conjunction with
the United Kingdom Act, would have the effect of
creating a copyright in every TV (and sound)
programme » as distinct from the individual
works making up the programme)and of making it
e)and
/an......
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