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Following is the transcript of the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, Mr Joseph WP Wong, speaking to the media after attending the luncheon hosted by the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Society today (December 14):
Reporter: Do you expect one comprehensive law to come out of the consultation document...?
SCIT: Well, I have just given the preview of the key issues that will be covered in the consultation document which aims to seek public views on what options are available to the government in order to enhance the protection of copyright on the Internet. It will cover a range of issues which, of course, are highly controversial, such as whether or not it is an option for the government to criminalise downloading or infringing copies from the Internet which at the moment is not the case. Whether or not we should impose more obligations on the part of the online service providers to cooperate with copyright owners in producing records of these infringers. These are the things we have to address and we would therefore like to have a thorough discussion and a thorough debate in the community. The consultation document, of course, will also set out what other jurisdictions are doing or have done in this respect so that people can draw reference from other practices.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)
Ends/Thursday, December 14, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:18
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