Government hits back at attacks on copyright law

Government officials on Monday responded to ungrounded fears articulated by opposition advocates over the copyright law amendment. 

Secretary for Commerce and Development Gregory So Kam-leung said that one lawmaker still appeared not to realize that infringement of copyright was already a criminal act. 

Scores of protesters were expected to show up at a rally outside the Legislative Council on Wednesday night in a bid to stop the chamber passing the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2014. 

With radio interviews and "background briefings" for the media, the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau on Monday made an all-out effort to counter misrepresentations of the amendment. Game play streaming and cover versions of copyrighted songs, for example, are already protected by the existing law. 

Gregory So said that the new statutory exemptions would better safeguard the use of copyrighted materials for parodies and commentaries. 

He noted that according to an open letter submitted by the Neo Democrats' Gary Fan Kwok-wai, the opposition lawmaker was not fully aware that infringement of copyright has always been liable to criminal penalties under the current law. 

The LegCo bill committee held 24 meetings up until November. Fan had been part of them until he pulled out in January after the ninth meeting. 

Former lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah attended committee meetings before his resignation in June. The senior counsel said the notion that the new law would be used by authorities to curb freedom of expression was untrue. Tong said more defense grounds would be available to users under the new law. 

Some lawmakers have always opposed the bill. But Tong lamented that his former allies again failed to explain the merits of the new law. They had also failed to clearly articulate the importance of taking into account the interests of other stakeholders in society. 

Incumbent opposition lawmakers on Monday told the media they hoped the deliberations in the chamber would help the public understand the bill better. 

LegCo President Jasper Tsang Yok-sing on Monday rejected most amendments moved by the opposition camp - only 42 amendments out of 903 proposed by independent radical lawmaker Wong Yuk-man were accepted.