God
J
2 August 1993
BY FAX
Peter Harrison Esq
Government Secretariat
Recreation and Culture Branch 41st Floor, Revenue Tower
5 Gloucester Road
Wan Chai
Hong Kong
270-2653
SUBSCRIPTION TELEVISION COPYRIGHT PROTECTION
1.
Our Legal Advisers have carefully considered Hong Kong telno 1013, which sets out the need for a stop gap measure to provide copyright protection for Cable Television due to come on stream in October. They have advised that, regrettably, it is not possible to make an Order under the Cable and Broadcasting Act 1984 extending its provisions to Hong Kong, because it does not contain the necessary legal powers.
2.
Telno 1013 suggested that we might make an Order using the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, Schedule 1, paragraph 36(2), which saves the powers in the Copyright Act 1956, section 31(1) under which Hong Kong's existing Orders were made. However, Section 31 (1) only empowers us to make modifications to the 1956 Act, as applied to Hong Kong by the 1972, 1979, and 1990 Orders. It does not empower us to give effect to the 1984 Act. Likewise we could use the powers in section 31 (1) to modify the Copyright (Computer Software) (Extension to Territories) Order 1987, which made amendments to the 1956 Act as applied to Hong Kong, but, any such modifications would have to be within the scope of the 1956 Act as amended by the Copyright (Computer Software) Amendment Act 1985. They could not extend to applying the whole of the 1984 Act.
J
Let2.SubTV
AB
1