TNAG-2447-FCO40-3563-Television-in-Hong-Kong-1992 — Page 6

Mr Furness HKD

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FROM:

Miss S Brooks

Legal Counsellor

DATE:

14 January 1992

CABLE TELEVISION: COPYRIGHT PROTECTION

1. Hong Kong Government have gone very quiet on this subject. I suggest that we ask them whether they have completed their review of copyright protection in Hong Kong. If so, do they intend to include cable television copyright protection in the legislation to implement the review? I note that paragraph 2 of Hong Kong telno 860 of 9 March 1990 states that the Hong Kong Government needed to have temporary provision for copyright protection of cable television, pending the Law Commission report and subsequent legislation.

2. It does not seem very sensible at this stage to be enacting Orders in Council of the kind which will need localisation, given that it is now less than 5 years away from the hand-over of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China and so much localisation of legislation still needs to be done. It was for this reason that Option 1 set out in Hong Kong's telno 860 was rejected. Unless the Hong Kong Government is unlikely to be in a position to introduce legislation on this matter for a year or more, I suggest that local legislation is enacted to give the required protection rather than proceeding by way of an Order in Council.

3. Option 4 was the option which was eventually chosen for giving copyright protection on a temporary basis to cable television in Hong Kong. This involves amending the Copyright (Hong Kong) Orders which extend the provisions of the Copyright 1956 Act to Hong Kong so as to additionally extend to Hong Kong various sections and part of a Schedule of the Cable and Broadcasting Act 1984 which amended the 1956 Act. If the Hong Kong Government still wish to proceed by means of Option 4, they should let us know exactly which Copyright (Hong Kong) Orders they have in mind to be amended.

AELABO