TNAG-0265-FCO40-301-Legislation-for-copyright-in-Hong-Kong-1970 — Page 106

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television and sound broadcasts made by the British Broad- casting Corporation or by the Independent Television Authority from a place in the United Kingdom or in any other country to which the Section is applied. The

straight application of Section 14 to Hong Kong, as provided in the Order, would not of itself present any problem: the difficulty arises by virtue of the manner in which its application to the Colony is modified by clause 4 of the draft Copyright (Hong Kong) Bill (see paragraph 10 below). The provisions of the draft Order do not therefore call for any comment. It should, how- ever, be noted that the Order is subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament; that its presentation would provide RTV with an opportunity

to lobby Members of Parliament to pray against the Order; and that the responsibility for dealing with any debate in Parliament would fall upon the President of the Board of

Trade.

10. Draft Copyright Bill: The only provision of signif- icance in the draft Bill is clause 4(2). The effect of

the clause, when read with Section 14 of the United Kingdom Copyright Act, 1956, will be to create a copyright in every sound and television programme broadcast by any of the

existing broadcasting organisations in Hong Kong, and to

make it an infringement of that copyright if such a broad-

cast is relayed to subscribers to a diffusion service without

the licence of the originating broadcast organisation. This

will mean that RTV will not be able to relay the broadcast

programmes of TVB without first obtaining permission from them to do so. This clause, therefore, would substantially diminish the use and value of RTV's exclusive relay rights granted under its licence. There can in fact be no legal objection to the clause since RTV's licence specifically provides that it is subject to any copyright which may exist in material received by means of RTV's broadcast receiving

station. The licence must therefore be regarded as subject

to any changes in the copyright law which may occur after the grant of the licence. However, the change which clause 4(2) of the Hong Kong Copyright Bill seeks to make appears

to be directed specifically at RTV's rights under their licence and as such it must inevitably lead to strong pro-

/tests

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