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Motion debate on consultation paper on Copyright Bill
Following is the speech by the acting Secretary for Trade and Industry, Mr Tam Wing-bong, in response to the Hon Henry Tang's motion on consultation paper on Copyright Bill in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I have listened very carefully to the views expressed by Honourable Members on a number of legislative proposals set out in the Consultation Paper on the Copyright Bill, which was issued for public consultation last November. Given the limited time available, I do not propose to give a detailed response to each and every point made. Rather I would set out the policy objectives of the copyright law reform exercise and respond to two particularly contentious issues: parallel importation and copyright piracy.
Background and Policy Objectives
Mr President, the existing copyright law in Hong Kong is mainly based on the copyright law in the United Kingdom. There is a need to establish an independent copyright regime in Hong Kong before 1 July 1997. There is also a need to modernise the copyright law to cater for technological advances, to reflect prevailing international standards of intellectual property protection and to suit local circumstances.
The Law Reform Commission (LRC) published a Report on the Law Relating to the Reform of Copyright in January 1994 after extensive public consultation. The LRC recommended that Hong Kong should have its own copyright law modelled on the UK 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, with modifications to suit local circumstances.
The Basic Law provides that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government shall formulate its own policies on and intellectual property rights and protect those rights by law. Hong Kong is obliged to provide copyright protection under the major international intellectual property (IP) treaties, which will continue to be applied to Hong Kong after 30 June 1997. We also reached agreement with the Chinese side in the Joint Liaison Group in November 1995 on the proposals for localising the copyright law in Hong Kong.