As copyright is an automatic right under Hong Kong law which arises whenever an original work is created, it is important that no matter whether you are the copyright owner of the work or not the copyright owner of the work, you are aware of what acts you are legally permitted to do. 

If you are the copyright owner

Copyright is an automatic legal property right possessed by the owner of an original work. Simply put, it is the exclusive right to copy and reproduce the concerned work.

If you are the copyright owner of a work, as per the Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528), you have the right to do the following acts:

• to copy the work;
• to issue, rent, or make available copies of the work to the public;
• to perform, show or play the work in public;
• to broadcast the work or include it in a cable programme service; and
• to make an adaptation of the work or do any of the above in relation to an adaptation.

For more information on copyright, please see FAQ on Copyright.

If you are not the copyright owner

You would be in infringement of copyright if you committed any of the acts listed above (i.e. the rights of the copyright owner) in relation to copyright works without permission of the copyright holder.

Exemption from infringement

Under the Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528), there are certain exemptions from copyright infringement. In other words, you may have acted in the right of the copyright owner, but it does not constitute copyright infringement.

Fair Dealing

Fair Dealing of copyright work means fair use of such a work. It involves two broad elements:

1. The dealing must be fair in the sense that it should not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work by the copyright owner and should not unreasonably prejudice his/her legitimate interests, and to determine this, the following four factors shall be considered:
   1. the purpose and nature of the dealing;
   2. the nature of the work;
   3. the amount and substantiality of the portion dealt with in relation to the original work as a whole; and
   4. the effect of the dealing on the potential market for/value of the work.
2. The purpose of dealing must fall within the scope of the following four purposes:
   1. research and private study;
   2. criticism, review/comment, and news reporting;
   3. education; and
   4. public administration.

Therefore, if a person is using the copyright work in a fair and reasonable manner then such person will not incur any civil and criminal liability.

Education

The exemption for fair dealing for education purposes permits teachers to use reasonable portions of copyright works in a fair manner for teaching and learning. The four criterias listed above for fair dealing will be used to determine whether your dealing with a copyright work is fair or not.  Activities such as using the portion of copyright works for the purpose of instruction, performance in school activities is permitted as well. 

The exemption applies to:

• copyright works in printed form or in electronic form (including the works available on the internet).
• only to a specified course of study provided by educational establishments.Therefore, it does not apply to a charity or non-profit organization if it is not not an ‘educational establishment’ as defined in the Schedule 1 of the Copyright Ordinance. 

If the educational establishment needs to upload a reasonable portion of the copyright work on the school intranet for teaching purposes then it must:

1. adopt security measures to restrict access to the copies, so it is only accessible to people who need to use them for teaching or learning purposes; and
2. the copies are not stored in the intranet for a longer period than necessary or for longer than a 12-month consecutive period.

However, in the event the teachers are copying portions of the copyright works and such portions are not ‘reasonable’ then it is advisable that the educational establishment acquire appropriate license to copy such copyright works.

Other Permitted Acts

Additional permitted acts include, but are not limited to, the following:

• acts done for Legislative Council or judicial proceedings;
• acts done in respect of artistic works on public display;
• copying and making an adaptation of a computer program by a lawful user;
• copying by librarians or archivists;
• copying of materials open to public inspection or on official registers;
• free public showing or playing of broadcasts or cable programmes.

Please note that this is a general overview of the main acts that are permitted by copyright in Hong Kong. For more details, you may take a look at the provisions under the Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528).