TNAG-0265-FCO40-301-Legislation-for-copyright-in-Hong-Kong-1970 — Page 31

CONFIDENTIAL

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the Government's intention at that time was to permit RTV to

exercise this right of relay granted to them by licence whenever

a further TV station was set up. However, as early as 1962,

which was long before any competing station was in prospect,

the Hong Kong Government began to have second thoughts about

the wisdom of their action. In 1965, by which time the

setting up of a second TV station was a live issue, that

Government had decided it was "against the public interest"

for one broadcasting organisation to have the right to relay

a programme contemporaneously without the consent of the

originating organisation. They therefore decided to give

effect to this principle through the medium of the 1956

United Kingdom Act (suitably modified for application to the

Colony) together with a Hong Kong Copyright Bill which would

be enacted and brought into force at the same time as the

United Kingdom Act was applied to the Colony. The Bill would

contain a clause (Clause 4(2)) which, when read in conjunction

with the United Kingdom Act, would have the effect of

creating a copyright in every TV (and sound) programme (as

distinct from the individual works making up the programme) and

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

cast were relayed to subscribers to a diffusion service,

without the licence of the originating broadcast organisation.

The Hong Kong Government argued that though this would have

the effect of altering the terms of RTV's licence, that licence

was subject to whatever legislation on copyright was in force

/and did

CONFIDENTIAL