Government’s position and public debates on UGC and Fair Use in Hong Kong

Abstract

Aiming at bringing Hong Kong’s copyright protection in line with the international trend, particularly with regard to copyright protection over Internet, Hong Kong government started copyright law amendment in 2006. 10 years have passed but the law is still unchanged. The Copyright (Amendment) Bill has been repeatedly dropped by Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo) due to pan-democratic lawmakers’ filibusters. Outside the LegCo, Hong Kong netizens used violence to protest the Bill. The legal issues such as whether the user-generated-content (UGC) should be treated as a fair use, and whether online copyright infringement should be criminalized have been escalated to a political issue of freedom of speech and press. Why has the law reform encountered the unprecedented opposition from the public in Hong Kong (and the political party representing them)? What is the cultural, social and political backdrop that has influenced the amendment process? This talk will answer these questions by looking at not only the legal issues being debated, the respective positions taken by the Hong Kong government and the public, but also the complicated relationship between Hong Kong and the Mainland China, and the cultural and social changes caused by this relationship during the past 10 years. The talk will also shed some light on how Hong Kong government should move forward with respect to its copyright law reform, and why its copyright law reform should not only follow the international trend but also be watchful of the copyright law reform in the mainland China, particularly on UGC and fair use.