HK copyright bill political football for the opposition

Radical lawmakers in Hong Kong are staging a weird chorus against the move by the government of the special administrative region to extend the protection of copyrights to the Internet.

The campaign to derail the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2014 has witnessed activities including online petitions, street rallies and maneuvers in the Legislative Council to filibuster the bill, as LegCo begins its second reading of the bill on Wednesday.

It is a no-brainer that Hong Kong has an urgent need to update its copyright law to keep it abreast of the rapid developments in the cyber world. The SAR has lagged behind many developed economies for over a decade in terms of copyright legislation, specifically in the protection of digital copyrights. The film, TV and music industries have laid the blame for the rampant online piracy on the government's failure to update the copyright law since 2006, claiming this has cost them billions of dollars.