The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passed the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2022 in its third reading on December 7, aiming at updating the copyright system in Hong Kong and strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights in the digital environment. 

The Bill is mainly based on the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2014, and the relevant legislative proposals are the consensus reached after several rounds of consultation and discussion since 2006. The revised contents of this draft include: 

In response to scientific and technological development, copyright owners are given corresponding rights to ensure their works disseminated in electronic form are protected by law; clarify the statutory duty for related infringements; provide copyright exemptions for the use of copyrighted works for parody, satire, comic and imitation, commentary on current affairs and citation, and amend and expand the scope of existing copyright exemptions to facilitate online learning and the operation of libraries, archives and museums; add "safe harbor" provisions to encourage Internet service providers to cooperate with copyright owners to combat piracy; also, two statutory factors are added for reference in court judgment. 

At the meeting, several Legislative Council Members expressed their support for the draft, arguing that if Hong Kong is to push forward a regional intellectual property trade center, the copyright system must stay up to date. Regarding doubts that the draft may affect the freedom of creation and speech, Qiu Yinghua, secretary for commerce and economic development, explained that the amendment was put forward after many rounds of public consultation, which balanced the interests of all parties. Instead of narrowing the freedom of speech, expression and creation, it will bring more exemptions for copyright protection than the previous regulations. 

Qiu said that the SAR government will complete the preparatory work for the implementation of the revised regulations as soon as possible, and publicize and explain the new terms through different channels, so that the public can better understand the contents of the regulations.