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Regarding the examination of the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2014 (the Bill), a spokesperson for the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau said today (February 26) that the Government urged the Legislative Council (LegCo) to pass the Bill as soon as possible in the overall interest of Hong Kong.
Some facts of the Bill are:
(1) A Bills Committee of the current-term LegCo convened 24 meetings in 16 months to critically examine the Bill. Members supported the resumption of the Second Reading Debate.
(2) Since the resumption of the Second Reading Debate was put on the agenda, LegCo has held seven meetings to date, but five out of the seven meetings were adjourned as a quorum was not present.
(3) In the past two months or so, LegCo's meeting time amounted to 75 hours, 55 of which were wasted on pan-democrats' quorum calls or adjournment motion debates.
(4) The Bill offers more comprehensive protection for intellectual property rights than the current law does. It is of vital importance to Hong Kong's commerce and economic development, and has the support of copyright owners, the Hong Kong Bar Association, the Law Society of Hong Kong and others.
(5) The Bill provides users with more copyright exceptions and protection.
(6) As a result of pan-democrats' continued filibusters, the number of bills and government resolutions pending before LegCo has increased to six. The current term of LegCo will end in less than five months' time. It is expected that as many as 28 bills, which are related to a wide range of social, economic and livelihood issues, will need to be processed by the current-term LegCo.
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The Government strongly urges LegCo to pass the Bill early in the overall interest of Hong Kong.
At next week's sitting, LegCo still has two and a half days to process the Bill. If the debate could not finish in a timely manner, the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Gregory So, would move a motion on March 4 (Friday) that the proceedings be adjourned to bring the examination of the Bill to an end.
Ends/Friday, February 26, 2016
Issued at HKT 19:56
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