Copyright law in Hong Kong to a great extent follows the English model. The Basic Law of Hong Kong, its constitutional document, guarantees a high degree of autonomy and continuation of laws previously in force after its reunification with Mainland China. Hong Kong therefore continues to maintain a separate intellectual property regime from Mainland China.
Article 139 and 140 of the Basic Law specifically deal with the protection of copyright in Hong Kong.
Article 139
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall, on its own, formulate policies on science and technology and protect by law achievements in scientific and technological research, patents, discoveries and inventions.
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall, on its own, decide on the scientific and technological standards and specifications applicable in Hong Kong.
Article 140
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall, on its own, formulate policies on culture and protect by law the achievements and the lawful rights and interests of authors in their literary and artistic creation. [1]
Apart from general substantive criteria, for Copyright to subsist in a work, the statutory requirements with respect to qualification for copyright protection in s 177 must be met (Copyright Ordinance s 2(3)).
Hong Kong has broad copyright protection thanks to its open-qualification system under Copyright Ordinance ss177(1)(a), 177(1)(b) and 178. It means that no requirements of nationality or other status of the author, or of the work's place of first publication need to be satisfied before a work is eligible for protection. Works transmitted over Internet, radio, televisions are all under protection (ss26 and 177(1)(c)).
Nonetheless, Copyright Ordinance s 180(1) allows the Chief Executive to deny or limit copyright protection for works originating in non-reciprocating jurisdictions.
The Copyright Ordinance (Cap 528), which became effective on 27 June 1997, is Hong Kong's first purely local copyright law. However, the Copyright Act in 1956 of the United Kingdom will continue to apply to the protection of copyright of works created before 27 June 1997.
Copyright Ordinance (Cap 528) s 2(i)(a) protects 9 categories of copyrighted works:
In order to successfully claim for copyright protection, 3 criteria must be satisfied: (1) the subject matter must be a 'work'; (2) the work must fall within 1 of the 9 categories stated in s.2(1) of the Hong Kong Copyright Ordinance; and (3) the work must be original if the subject matter is a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work.
S.17 to 21 of the Copyright Ordinance deal with the duration of copyright works. The author of the work is deemed to be the person who creates the work (with exceptions for commissioned works and employee works). S.17(1) to (5) states that the duration of copyright of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works is the life of the author plus 50 years, or 50 years from the end of the year in which the work was first created or made available to the public if the identity of the author is not known.
Except for typographical arrangement of published editions, the duration of copyright in other works is also 50 years from certain events specified in the Copyright Ordinance.
The duration of copyright in typographical arrangement of published editions is 25 years from the year of first publication, according to S.21 of the Copyright Ordinance.
The Hong Kong Copyright Ordinance Pt II Div IV (ss 89–100) recognizes the following two types of moral rights ("droit d'auteur") in favour of the author, director or commissioner of the work regardless of whether he is the owner of the copyright: (i) Right to be identified as author or director (Copyright Ordinance s 89); and (ii) Right to object to derogatory treatment of work Copyright Ordinance s 92.
Controversial changes criminalising the copying of materials in the course of trade were introduced in 2000: insofar as they affect printed matter, these were quickly suspended following an outcry from educational groups and consumer groups. The suspension, provided in the Copyright (Suspension of Amendments) Ordinance 2001, will expire on 31 July 2004. Hong Kong is currently unique in the common law world for treating copying infringing materials differently between printed and non-printed materials.
Copyright laws are administered by the Intellectual Property Department of the Hong Kong Government.
Official texts, as defined in Article 2(4) of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, are texts of a legislative, administrative and legal nature and the official translations of such texts.
The law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has its foundation in the English common law system, inherited from being a former British colony and dependent territory. There are several sources of law, the primary ones being statutes enacted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and case law made by decisions of the courts of Hong Kong.
A copyright is the legal protection extended to the owner of the rights in an original work. Original work refers to every production in the literary, scientific, and artistic domains. The Intellectual Property Office (IPOPHL) is the leading agency responsible for handling the registration and conflict resolution of intellectual property rights and to enforce the copyright laws. IPOPHL was created by virtue of Republic Act No. 8293 or the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines which took effect on January 1, 1998, under the presidency of Fidel V. Ramos.
The Copyright Act 1957 as amended governs the subject of copyright law in India. The Act is applicable from 21 January 1958. The history of copyright law in India can be traced back to its colonial era under the British Empire. The Copyright Act 1957 was the first post-independence copyright legislation in India and the law has been amended six times since 1957. The most recent amendment was in the year 2012, through the Copyright (Amendment) Act 2012.
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, also known as the CDPA, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received royal assent on 15 November 1988. It reformulates almost completely the statutory basis of copyright law in the United Kingdom, which had, until then, been governed by the Copyright Act 1956 (c. 74). It also creates an unregistered design right, and contains a number of modifications to the law of the United Kingdom on Registered Designs and patents.
The basic legal instrument governing copyright law in Pakistan is the Copyright Ordinance, 1962 as amended by the Copyright (Amendment) Ordinance, 2000.
"Author's rights" is a term frequently used in connection with laws about intellectual property.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, was an international assembly held in 1886 in the Swiss city of Bern by ten European countries with the goal of agreeing on a set of legal principles for the protection of original work. They drafted and adopted a multi-party contract containing agreements for a uniform, border-crossing system that became known under the same name. Its rules have been updated many times since then. The treaty provides authors, musicians, poets, painters, and other creators with the means to control how their works are used, by whom, and on what terms. In some jurisdictions these type of rights are referred to as copyright; on the European continent they are generally referred to as author' rights or makerright.
Crown copyright is a type of copyright protection. It subsists in works of the governments of some Commonwealth realms and provides special copyright rules for the Crown, i.e. government departments and (generally) state entities. Each Commonwealth realm has its own Crown copyright regulations. There are therefore no common regulations that apply to all or a number of those countries. There are some considerations being made in Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand regarding the "reuse of Crown-copyrighted material, through new licences".
Under the law of the United Kingdom, a copyright is an intangible property right subsisting in certain qualifying subject matter. Copyright law is governed by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended from time to time. As a result of increasing legal integration and harmonisation throughout the European Union a complete picture of the law can only be acquired through recourse to EU jurisprudence, although this is likely to change by the expiration of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020, the UK has left the EU on 31 January 2020. On 12 September 2018, the European Parliament approved new copyright rules to help secure the rights of writers and musicians.
Interlego AG v Tyco Industries Inc was a case in copyright law that originated in Hong Kong that eventually went before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the United Kingdom.
The copyright law of Chile is governed by Law No. 17,336, on Intellectual Property of October 2 of 1970 and subsequent amendments. It was implemented in the Decree No. 1122 of the Ministry of Education of Chile on May 17 of 1971.
The Copyright Act 1994 is an Act of Parliament passed in New Zealand that, along with its various amendments, governs copyright in New Zealand. It is administered by Intellectual Property Policy Unit of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
Copyright law in Thailand governs the legally enforceable rights of creative and artistic works under the Copyright Act BE 2537 (1994). Copyright is automatically protected for 50 years after the death of a known author or 50 years after publication in the case of an unknown author. It does not need registration; however, it can be filed with the Department of Intellectual property (DIP). Disputes are first heard in the Intellectual Property and International Trade Court.
The copyright law of South Africa governs copyright, the right to control the use and distribution of artistic and creative works, in the Republic of South Africa. It is embodied in the Copyright Act, 1978 and its various amendment acts, and administered by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission in the Department of Trade and Industry. As of March 2019 a major amendment to the law in the Copyright Amendment Bill has been approved by the South African Parliament and is awaiting signature by the President.
Fixation in Canadian copyright law is a threshold consideration that must be used in copyright infringement cases by courts to determine if copyright actually exists.
The basic legal instrument governing copyright law in Bangladesh is the Copyright Act, 2000. It is largely based on Pakistan's Copyright Ordinance, 1962.
The basic legal instrument governing copyright law in Sri Lanka is Part II of the Intellectual Property Act, No. 36 of 2003 replacing Part II of the Code of Intellectual Property Act, No. 52 of 1979.
The Copyright law of El Salvador is legal rights to creative and artistic works under the laws of El Salvador. It was implemented in the Decree No. 604 of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador on 16 of August 1993. This law aims to protect the economic and moral rights of Salvadoran authors and foreigners residing in El Salvador, granted by the mere fact of creating works that are literary, artistic and scientific.