The controversies of the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2011 : creation and communication of derivative works (二次創作) by Netizens through the internet as play

摘要

The HK Government’s public consultation on “Treatment of Parody under the Copyright Regime” ended on 15 November 2013. This is part of the consultations regarding the Copyright (Amendment) Bill (“the Bill”) introduced in June 2011 which stirred up heated debates regarding the liabilities of those who create and communicate derivative works via the internet without the prior consent of the copyright owners concerned. This round of consultation generated no less amount of controversies. “Netizen” organizations such as Derivative Works Concerned Group and Keyboard Frontier jointly proposed a “4th Option” in addition to the Government’s threeand introduced the concept of “User Generated Content”. Despite the Government’s repeated reassurance that they were open to the public’s opinion, the prospect of this option being adopted and incorporated into the wordings of the upcoming Bill remains highly doubtful.It is not intended in this paper to dig into the detailed legal issues surrounding these consultations. Instead, what exactly do these netizens do with the internet media, especially such social media as Facebook (“FB”) and Golden Discussion Forum (“GDF”) via creating and circulating their derivative works is of interest here. The ultimate question is: why are they so afraid of the Bill?