HK Intellectual Property Department To Scrutinise File Sharing

by Mary Swire, for LawAndTax-News.com, Hong Kong

28 April 2004

According to a South China Morning Post report, the Hong Kong government is beginning to look at clamping down on peer-to-peer file sharing networks such as Kazaa and Grokster.

Speaking to the SCMP, Derek Roth-Biester, lawyer with UK law firm, Masons, explained that although P2P services exist in the territory in a kind of legal limbo, and Hong Kong residents are as yet unable to access legal music downloading services, the downloading of songs from the P2P networks constitutes an offence.

He went on to add that although copyright owners allow Hong Kong residents to make copies of music that they have purchased, under "fair use" provisions:

"Format shifting does not include the right to offer those songs over P2P networks. It would no longer consitute fair use and the user would open himself up to prosecution for copyright infringement."

Although the Hong Kong authorities have traditionally concentrated on punishing the creators and distributors of copyright infringing goods and services, the SCMP revealed that with box office receipts and CD sales falling, the jurisdiction's Intellectual Property Department has pledged to look into how the Hong Kong Copyright Ordinance could be applied to file sharing.

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