Hong Kong's copyright protection regime may be bolstered to foster an environment conducive to the development of a knowledge-based economy, an official of the Hong Kong SAR government said Friday.

John Tsang, the Secretary for Commerce, Industry & Technology said proposals have been worked out after considering views from a recent public consultation exercise and discussions with concerned groups.

"We need to strike a delicate balance between the principles of strengthening our copyright protection regime and the need for reasonable use of copyright works by the general public," he said.

He urged Legislative Council members and stakeholders to take abroad view in evaluating the proposals' merits, considering the overall interest of the community.

To promote better corporate governance and accountability to prevent copyright infringements in business, the HKSAR government proposes to introduce a new criminal offence against directors or partners if their company commits an act attracting the business end-user criminal liability, unless there is evidence they had not authorized the crime, according to Tsang.
 
(Xinhua News Agency June 18, 2005)