are-re
but they pursuing a policy
Dumical FoRTV and, it seems, advantageous to shower as the müner of the
tember
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(b) My advisers have maintained that line
consistently ever since. In 1964, the Director of Information Services (now also the Television Authority), the Director of Broadcasting and the Postmaster General all advised that there should be copyright in both wireless and wired broadcasts and that the copyright should include the right to control relay, this being one of the ways in which commercial use might be made of a broadcast.
(c) The matter was again considered in 1965,
when the Director of Information Services confirmed his advice that a broadcasting company's copyright should include the right to control relay.
(d) By mid-1965, therefore, that position was firmly accepted and the ohly question remaining was how it could be reached by legislation.
This was some months before tenders for the grant of a wireless television licence under the Television Ordinance had been received and before it was known who the successful tenderer was. It follows that my advisers could not have been influenced by any way a desire to assist TVB in particular; nor, I am certain, were they influenced by
W
a desire to assist whoever else might obtain the licence under the Television Ordinance. The majority view at that time was that wireless television would be a success, and there was no reason to "see that TVB (or any other company) got off the ground" by controlling relay of its broadcasts.
Furthermore, though there was undoubtedly concern on the part of persons who were interested in tendering for a licence as to what the position would be (and one specific enquiry at least was received in 1965), the question of relay rights was but one of many factors which affected the viability of the commercial operation of wireless television.
6
Subsequent events were as follows
(a) In 1967 the Copyright Bill was drafted on the
basis of the advice which had been received, and contained the now all too familiar clause 4 which, in accordance with the agreed policy, conferred copyright in both wireless and wired broadcasts.
(b) By this time, TVB had been granted the
licence under the Television Ordinance, and it was only natural that the question of copyright protection should come to be viewed, at least partially, in an RTV/TVB context. Both Companies were sent a draft of the Bill in July 1967 and this, of course, produced RTV's first reaction.
(c) Thereafter, the Deputy Colonial Secretary
attempted to reach an agreed settlement with
/both Companies
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