18-77
To:
MRS SULLIVAN IPP1
From:
DALEEP S MANGAT
Sol C4
Room 108
10-18 Victoria Street
Tel: 215 3472
4 August 1993
tatt han de MARJAN W VIVA
F.E
Reference
COPYRIGHT ACT 1956 HONG KONG
Please refer to your faxed note of 3 August, with the copy of the draft letter FCC propose to send to the Hong Kong authorities.
2 Thank you (your fax of today) for a copy of the letter from Mr Whomersley, FCO, dated 29 January 1990, which has jogged my memory on the issue of extensions to Hong Kong and the assumptions, quite erroneous, made by me at the time on the extent of the powers under paragraph 36(2) of Schedule 1 to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
3 The legal advice quoted in the draft letter is in substance correct. I do not quite understand the latter part of paragraph 2 in that letter and the references to the modifications to the Copyright (Computer Software) (Extension to Territories) Order 1987, but I cannot see that this is material to the issue of the extent of paragraph 36(2) of Schedule 1. What is clear (and this must be apperent to the authorities in Hong Kong) is that there is no power in the Cable and Broadcasting Act 1984 to extend that Act to dependent territories (section 59 empowers extension to only the Isle of Man and Channel Islands). What was sought was an extension of the new provisions of the 1956 Act, inserted by eg the Cable and Broadcasting Act 1984 to provide in respect of Hong Kong new works.
4 My minute of 1 February 1890 to David Irving inquired whether the draft Order then under consideration by FCO should provide for these and any other new right. The view, if I recall, was that Hong Kong was not ready for this yet and
Mr Whomersley would be preparing an Order to do that in due course. I am afraid there was no authority for the view that after 1 August 1989 the power under paragraph 36(2) could be used in this way. The Copyright (Hong Kong) (Amendinent) Order 1990 (SI 588) was correct exercise of the power.
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