Chief executive reportedly secured licence of ‘I Like You’ after his performance this week before a pro-Beijing group
DANNY.MOK@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 10 December, 2015, 10:19am
UPDATED : Thursday, 10 December, 2015, 10:19am
The chief executive (centre, in red tie) sang the hit with fellow pro-Beijing loyalists on Monday. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Hong Kong’s top official became more personally enmeshed in the city’s raging copyright debate after it came to light this week that he sang a popular song that was not his.
Leung Chun-ying joined in singing the hit “I Like You” by now-dissolved rock band Beyond during the third anniversary dinner of the Beijing-loyalist Business and Professionals Alliance on Monday.
The clip of his performance, alongside the band’s bassist Steven Wong Ka-keung, appeared on Leung’s Facebook page, triggering concern in some quarters over whether Leung’s posting would break the current or future copyright law.
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Leung’s office yesterday admitted the posting “was not that good”, and therefore the office had already applied for a licence from the Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong, or CASH, saying it had secured approval.
CASH was incorporated under the Companies Ordinance to administer and enforce copyright owners’ rights under the Copyright Ordinance. It was created to issue licences to music users so that they could legally use others’ works of music.
When asked to comment on Leung’s post, Ada Leung Ka-lai, director of the city’s intellectual property department, said it could be deemed a report on current affairs, which could qualify as an exemption under the proposed new copyright law.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1889159/sour-note-hong-kong-copyright-bill-opponents-slam-cy-leung
