Four sides locked in debate over Hong Kong’s copyright amendment bill face crucial meeting
Chairman of Legco committee discussing the controversial and much-delayed issue says pan-democrats have promised to temporarily stop delaying tactics
Lawmakers, government, copyright owner groups and internet users will meet again in a “four-side conference” next Wednesday in an attempt to break the impasse over scrutiny of the contentious copyright amendment bill, which has dragged on for weeks.
The chairman of the bill committee, Chan Kam-lam of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, also said pan-democrats had promised to temporarily stop filibustering in the Legislative Council during the meeting.
“I hope every party can put down their presupposition in the meeting,” Chan said on Wednesday. “The greatest challenge right now is to locate the representatives of internet users as even Keyboard Frontline, the biggest internet freedom concern group, says it could not represent everyone.”
READ MORE: Copyright bill debate abandoned as not enough members turn up to Legco
Chan hoped different parties could place their focus on debating the feasibility of the fair use exemption, one of the amendments proposed by pan-democrats, which would allow more leeway for users when they imitate copyrighted work – compared to the current “fair dealing” rule, which is specific and exclusive.
He also called on the government to table such an amendment should a consensus emerge, so the copyright bill could be passed within this Legco year.
Meanwhile, Chan, who is also vice-chairman of the legislature’s Finance Committee, said extra sessions of meetings would be held in the coming weeks for scrutiny of the controversial additional funding request of the long-delayed, high-speed railway link to the mainland.
“Personally I hope the request can be put to a vote by the end of February,” said Chan.
Chan was asked to take over Finance Committee discussions of the government’s request for an extra HK$19.6 billion in funding for the project after chairman Chan Kin-por decided to step aside on the issue. He said that would avoid giving pan-democrats more excuses to delay the debate by accusing him of having a potential conflict of interest in the project.