CASBAA: Hong Kong Must Pass Copyright Reform to Counter Piracy

HONG KONG: The Hong Kong legislature must quickly pass “critical” amendments to its copyright law this week in order to tackle content piracy, according to Asia Pacific media trade association CASBAA.

The group urged the government in Hong Kong to pass the Copyright Amendment Bill, which would update Hong Kong’s copyright law while bringing “digital copyright principles to Hong Kong for the first time,” per CASBAA. The amendments will come up for debate later this week.

“Hong Kong’s IP law is in dire need of updating in order to take account of legal and illegal digital distribution of copyrighted materials, including entire online packages of pirated pay-TV programming,” said John Medeiros, CASBAA’s chief policy officer. “While the laws are delayed, online piracy has flourished. The lack of good laws in Hong Kong is causing huge damage to the creative industry. It is not theoretical—real jobs are being lost.”

In a statement, CASBAA has called the amendments “critical to the future of the content industries” in Hong Kong. However, net-advocacy groups have opposed the bill on grounds that the creation and distribution of all derivative works could be limited.

And while it supports the bill, CASBAA has stated that it feels the law does not provide strong enough protection for copyrighted broadcasts. The association nevertheless wants the bill passed in order to address other issues next year, including net-advocacy groups’ proposal for new exemptions to user-generated content, plus additional enforcement authority against commercial-scale piracy syndicates.

“Good copyright laws exist in all of the world’s leading democracies, and there is no contradiction between protecting creation of quality video programming and basic civil rights,” Medeiros said.