Doubt that would be the cause why they are using copyright infringement. I think its more to protect the entertainment industry from going out of business from all the dls sites that are available. Aslo, its a very common thing in HK for the government to close down shops that are selling copied DVDs and such.
I don't say they don't do that to protect the entertainment industry ('coz it IS a huge problem) , but there's the 2nd underlying reason that might not be so clear to see; implementing this law can make future censorship easier.
I don't know, I have a feeling that this plan is bound to backfire somehow from many indie artists (are there still indie artists left in Hong Kong? You bet!) And from what I read, I think they are just proposing as of now (or whatever when that document is out). It is one thing to "protect the music industry" but quite another to render all virtual material exchanges (such as images and of course, sound and videos) as criminal offenses. In fact, the Hong Kong government is contemplating a go-ahead with one of the follow three proposals: 1) 任何人如未獲版權擁有人授權而從互聯網下載一篇文章或一張照片／ 圖像也可招致刑事檢控， 1) Anyone who downloads image and/or text could be prosecuted, 2) 由於下載版權作品的點對點使用者，會同時讓其他點對點使用者存取他剛下載的檔案部分，以及他在指明資料夾內儲存的檔案，因此該等使用者亦會引致刑事罰則， 2) As P2P users can make the newly download copyright infringed material available (upload), all class of P2P users could be prosecuted. 3) 只把造成直接商業利益或程度嚴重的未獲授權下載活動和分享檔案活動定為刑事罪行 3) Only those which causes monetary damage, or unauthorized downloading and file sharing could be prosecuted. I think the last is definitely the least strict of them all, but the definition is quite vague still... And no, I am not sure how well the propsals (all three of them) will be received. I am sure the record companies and entertainment business are digging it, but at the same time it is going too far with proposal 1... @Taxloss: I don't think rumours are prosecutable even under the strictest of the three proposals... So I am not quite sure how the soon-to-be-implemented policy may aide censorship...
^Well, let's hope they won't. But if I skip that potential censorship idea for now, I think that law can go the opposite way for the entertainment industry if let's say fans of artists are not willingly to pay for the artists work and hence won't be making profit of it anymore (although, we are speaking about HK people...more followers than individuals sometimes it seems like) and artists gets easily dropped by their record company more than ever. Also, fans like to share pics, vids, lyrics etc of their fav artist, if you forbid that there's not much left for the fanbase to chat about or exchanging ideas with each other. Peer to peer recommendation is an even more powerful tool than advertising campaigns and if they stop these kind of communities in whatever form it may appear, the entertainment industry will be cutting in their own hand in the end.
@Taxloss: the loss of fanbase is a very strong argument. Seeing that they are squeezing between a rock and a hard place out of their own will, I think it's some kind of twisted poetic justice But yeah, I am sure it'll be hell for fan sites =_=b Lyrics are copyrighted, images are copyrighted. Soon enough even the name of the artist will be copyrighted And yeah, totally the herd more than individual there... as far as I can see. But not complaining, since they are the money propelling the economy
Well haha, glad you agree with me about the fanbase argument! I know next to nothing about the Asian music industry but in Europe there are quite a lot of new bands that sees their star rising due the Internet platforms like MySpaces, PureVolume, LastFM etc. Arctic Monkey's and Infadels are the first to spring into my mind that had entered the charts without a recordcompany they spread their music on the internet for free at first and if people really like their work they can buy it to support the band. Marillion even recorded an entire album without a record company backing their up; they've asked the fanbase on the website to support them by donating money if they like the a new Marillion album and it succeded!
