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Following is the transcript (English portion) of the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology (SCIT), Mr John Tsang, speaking to the media after attending the luncheon of the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Society today (December 9):
SCIT: The Government launched today a two-month consultation on certain provisions of our Copyright Ordinance to seek the public's views on how we should further improve our legislative regime for the protection of copyright. In particular, we are looking at related issues of copyright exemption and scope of criminal provisions related to end-user piracy.
The consultation covers two main issues. First, on exemptions from copyright restricted acts, we hope to gather the public's views on whether and how we should introduce more flexibility to our existing approach. Secondly, we would like to seek the views of the public on whether and how the scope of the existing criminal provisions related to end-user piracy should be expanded.
The issues covered in the consultation document all carry wide social implications and require a delicate balance to be struck between the interests of copyright owners and those of copyright work users. We have been keeping a close dialogue with our stakeholders, and the consultation document outlines possible options and relevant considerations for the issues that are of concern to the public.
We have an open mind on the issues and we look forward to hearing the public's views on how we should address these issues. We will carefully consider the views received before formulating balanced legislative proposals which are in the best interests of the whole community. We plan to introduce a Bill into the Legislative Council in the 2005-2006 legislative session.
Reporter: Mr Tsang, you mentioned one option is to look at the US "fair use" model. Can you tell us what the Government sees will be its advantages and disadvantages and why it has relevance to the Hong Kong regime?
SCIT: We do not have a position on the "fair use" model. We have set it out as an example of something that is being used in another jurisdiction. It may not be appropriate for Hong Kong at all. What we want to explore is how we could add more flexibility to the regime that we have now, and that is an example of how that could be used. We would like to hear the views from the community, and see which direction we would take.
Reporter: Can you elaborate a little more on what this model is about?
SCIT: The "fair use" model is a model that is being used in the United States. Basically it does not set out precisely, exhaustively like what we have in our regime in Hong Kong, what infringes and what does not infringe. It's more of a non-exhaustive approach to identify what are the infringing acts. It is two different approaches. We just want to set it out as an example.
Reporter: Mr Tsang, could you summarise, is this problem becoming worse? The IP infringement. Is it why you're legislating now?
SCIT: It is quite clear in my speech that this is an issue which dated back to 2001, that we have promised to legislate on a number of occasions, and we have suspended that twice. We promised at the end of the legislative session last year that we would implement this before the end of July 2006. We are taking the first step now, consulting the public and then we will proceed to legislation.
Reporter: Mr Tsang, could you tell us besides the US "fair use" model, are there any other alternative steps being proposed in the consultation paper?
SCIT: I would suggest you read that (consultation document) carefully and you would find it a very, very exciting reading.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Thursday, December 9, 2004
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