This ordinance commences on 1 April 2001 after wide publicity. It amends the Copyright Ordinance and the Prevention of Copyright Piracy Ordinance. Its primary aims are: (i) to combat corporate piracy activities, and (ii) to prevent bootlegging in places of public entertainment.

	i) To Combat Corporate Piracy Activities
	ii) Prevention of Bootlegging

The existing Copyright Ordinance already provides for criminal sanctions against corporate copyright piracy activities. Under the Ordinance, a person commits an offence, if he, without the licence of the copyright owner, possesses an infringing copy of a copyright work "for the purpose of trade or business" with a view to committing any act infringing the copyright. However, it is not absolutely clear whether this provision applies to the situation where the "trade or business" in question does not consist of selling or dealing in the infringing copy itself. To clarify the situation, the amended law provides that people who possess infringing copies of copyright work in the course of, in connection with, or for the purpose of their trade or business, with a view to committing any act infringing the copyright, will commit an offence. The offence is committed even they do not sell or deal in the infringing copies themselves.

A person possessing an infringing copy of a copyright work for use in his business will not commit an offence if he or she does not know and has no reason to believe that the copy in question is an infringing copy. The court will decide ultimately based on all relevant facts and circumstances.

The maximum penalty remains to be a fine of $50,000 per infringing copy and 4 years imprisonment. As before the amendment, Customs officers have power to seize and forfeit suspected infringing copies and other things which may be evidence of commission of an offence, whether or not a charge has been laid.

The amended law creates an offence of possessing, without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, any video recording equipment in a place of public entertainment that is used primarily as a cinema, theatre, or concert hall for the showing of films or performances. It tackles the problem of bootlegging in places of public entertainment which has been affecting the film industry for some time. The maximum penalty on first conviction is a fine of $5000, and on a second or subsequent conviction, a fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for three months. To alert the public to the prohibition, the law also requires the manager of the place of public entertainment to display warning notices in a specified manner, failing which the manager will commit an offence with a maximum fine of $5000.

A "place of public entertainment" is defined in the amended law as, among other things, any building or part of a building that is used primarily as a cinema, theatre or concert hall for showing of films or performance of literary, dramatic or musical works. The word "primarily" means the venue must be used mainly or for the most part for the showing of films, etc. The wording is intended to limit the scope of the prohibition so that it does not cover temporary venues for the showing of films such as school auditoria.

"Video recording equipment" is defined under the amended law. A digital cameral will fall within the definition of it is capable of making a recording of a moving image. If the camera can only take still pictures, it is excluded.