Reuses other publishers' content, in Hong Kong

Control of Exemption Clauses Ordinance (Cap. 71), ss. 7-8, 10-11 · Read the law's page

• Do not rely on a contract term or a notice to exclude or restrict your liability for death or personal injury resulting from negligence; such a term or notice has no effect (s. 7(1)).
• A term or notice that excludes or restricts your liability for other loss or damage resulting from negligence is effective only in so far as it satisfies the requirement of reasonableness, and a person's agreement to or awareness of it is not of itself voluntary acceptance of the risk (s. 7(2), (3)).
• Where the other party deals as consumer or on your written standard terms of business, a term that excludes or restricts your liability for your own breach, or that lets you perform differently from what was reasonably expected or not at all, is effective only in so far as it satisfies the requirement of reasonableness (s. 8).
• Do not use a term or notice in a guarantee of consumer goods to exclude or restrict liability for loss or damage from a defect that results from the negligence of a person concerned in the manufacture or distribution of the goods (s. 10(1)).
• Against a person dealing as consumer, you cannot exclude or restrict liability for breach of the seller's undertakings as to description, sample, quality or fitness for purpose under sections 15 to 17 of the Sale of Goods Ordinance (s. 11(2)).
• Against a business buyer, an exclusion of the sections 15 to 17 undertakings is effective only in so far as it satisfies the requirement of reasonableness (s. 11(3)).
• Sections 7 and 8 do not apply to a contract so far as it relates to the creation or transfer of a right or interest in a copyright, patent, trade mark, registered design, technical or commercial information or other intellectual property (Sch. 1, s. 1(c)).
• These limits bind only business liability, meaning liability for breach of obligations or duties arising from things done or omitted in the course of a business (s. 2(2)).

Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528), ss. 60-61 · Read the law's page

• If you have a contractual right to use a copy of a computer program, you may make a back-up copy of it without infringing the copyright if you need the back-up copy for your lawful use; an agreement to the contrary overrides this permission (s. 60).
• If you are a lawful user of a copy of a computer program, you may copy or adapt it without infringing the copyright where that is necessary for your lawful use, including to correct errors in it (s. 61(1), (2)).
• The permission in section 61 covers only copying or adapting that is necessary for the lawful use, and does not cover copying that section 60 already permits (s. 61(1), (3)).

Implementation Rules for Article 43 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Instrument A303), Schedule 4 · Read the law's page

• Take a disabling action on an electronic message when a designated officer requires it of you as platform service provider, before the deadline the officer specifies; a disabling action is removing the message, or restricting or ceasing access to it via the platform (Sch. 4, ss. 5(1), 7(3)).
• If you host stored material posted on an electronic platform, take a disabling action when the designated officer requires it because the platform service provider could not practicably be required to act or failed to comply (Sch. 4, ss. 3, 5(2), 7(4)(b)).
• If you supply an internet service or a specified network service available to end-users in Hong Kong, restrict or cease access to the message, or to the part or whole of the platform, when the designated officer requires it in the cases section 7(5)(b) describes (Sch. 4, ss. 4, 5(3), 7(5)(b), 14(4)).
• Provide the identification record, meaning the record of the identity of the person who published the message, or decryption assistance, when a police officer requires it under section 9 (Sch. 4, s. 9(3), (4)).
• Keep an address, including an email address, for receiving correspondence: a requirement or notification is issued to you once it is sent to that address, or by an electronic message if you provide none (Sch. 4, s. 15).

Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486), ss. 66J-66P · Read the law's page

• If the Privacy Commissioner serves a cessation notice on you, take the cessation action it specifies on or before the date it specifies; the action can be removing the message from your platform, ceasing or restricting access to it or to the part or whole of the platform, or discontinuing the hosting service for that part or the whole (ss. 66L(2), 66M(3)).
• The notice reaches a person present, incorporated, established or registered in Hong Kong, or with a place of business there, and also a non-Hong Kong service provider that has provided or is providing any service to any Hong Kong person (s. 66M(1), (2), (5)).
• To contest a cessation notice, appeal to the Administrative Appeals Board within 14 days after it is served; the appeal does not suspend the notice, so comply while the appeal is pending (s. 66N).
• Complying with a cessation notice does not expose you to civil liability to another person only because of the compliance (s. 66P).

Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528), ss. 22-23, 28A · Read the law's page

• You need the copyright owner's licence to copy a work, issue or rent copies of it to the public, perform, show or play it in public, communicate it to the public, or make an adaptation of it; copying includes storing a work by electronic means and making transient or incidental copies (ss. 22(1), (2), 23(2), (6)).
• Authorizing another person to do one of those acts without the owner's licence is also infringement, and a court may weigh your power to control or prevent the infringement, your relationship with that person and whether you took reasonable steps to limit or stop it (s. 22(2), (2A)).
• Making a work available through the Internet, so that members of the public may access it from a place and at a time they choose, is communicating it to the public (s. 28A(2), (3)).
• You communicate a work to the public if you determine the content of the communication; a person who only clicks on a link to gain access to a webpage does not (s. 28A(4), (5)).
• Providing facilities that enable or facilitate communication of a work to the public is not of itself communicating it, but facilities primarily designed, produced or adapted to enable direct access to a work without the owner's permission are not a mere provision of facilities (s. 28A(6)).
• Communicating a work to the public without the owner's licence in the course of a business of communicating works for profit or reward, or to an extent that prejudicially affects the owner, is also a criminal offence (ss. 118(8B), 119(3)).
• A computer program and a compilation of data that is an intellectual creation by its selection or arrangement are literary works, so copying either is within these rights (s. 4(1)).

Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528), ss. 39-39A · Read the law's page

• You may use a quotation from a work that has been released or communicated to the public, for criticism, review or otherwise, if the use is fair dealing, the quotation is no more than the specific purpose requires, and you give a sufficient acknowledgement (s. 39(2)).
• You may deal fairly with a work to report or comment on current events without infringing its copyright if the dealing is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement (s. 39(3)).
• Weigh the purpose and nature of the dealing, including whether it is of a commercial nature, the nature of the work, the amount and substantiality of the portion used, and the effect on the potential market for or value of the work (s. 39(4)).
• An acknowledgement is not needed where it is not reasonably practicable to give one (s. 39(6)).
• Section 39 sets no length limit for a headline or snippet, so do not assume that reproducing headlines and snippets systematically is fair dealing; fairness is judged on all the circumstances (s. 39(4)).

Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528), ss. 88A-88B · Read the law's page

• To keep the section 88B limitation on liability, take reasonable steps to limit or stop an infringement on your service platform as soon as practicable after you receive a notice of alleged infringement, become aware of the infringement, or become aware of facts that would lead inevitably to the conclusion that it occurred (s. 88B(2)(a)).
• Do not receive a financial benefit directly attributable to the infringement; one-off set up fees and flat periodic payments charged to all users on a non-discriminatory basis are not such a benefit (s. 88B(2)(b), (4)(b)).
• Accommodate, and do not interfere with, the standard technical measures that copyright owners use to identify or protect their works (s. 88B(2)(c)).
• Designate an agent to receive notices of alleged infringements, and supply the agent's name and contact details through your service, including on your website at a location accessible to the public (s. 88B(2)(d)).
• Complying with all the provisions of the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development's code of practice on limiting or stopping an alleged infringement counts as having taken reasonable steps (s. 88B(3)).
• The Division does not require you to monitor your service or actively seek facts that indicate infringing activity, and failing to qualify for the limitation does not affect any other defence you may have (s. 88B(5)).

Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528), ss. 88C-88H · Read the law's page

• Specify, through your service, the means by which a notice of alleged infringement and a counter notice are to be provided to your designated agent; you may also specify their form so far as it is not inconsistent with the content the Ordinance requires (ss. 88C(5), (6), 88E(5), (6)).
• A notice that lacks the content or form section 88C requires is of no effect for the section 88B(2)(a)(i) condition, and is not counted when deciding whether you were aware of the infringement (s. 88C(4)).
• On receiving a notice of alleged infringement you may send a copy to the subscriber, tell the subscriber to contact the complainant directly, remove the material or disable access to it, and notify the subscriber of the removal or disabling (s. 88C(7)).
• To keep the protection from liability for removing material that resides at a subscriber's direction, take reasonable steps to notify the subscriber of the removal and to send the subscriber a copy of the notice (s. 88H(2)(a), (b)).
• If the subscriber gives a counter notice, promptly send a copy to the complainant, act on an individual subscriber's stated option on disclosing the subscriber's personal data, and take reasonable steps to reinstate the material or cease disabling access within a reasonable time, unless proceedings seeking a court order have been commenced in Hong Kong and your designated agent has been notified of them in writing (s. 88H(2)(c), (7)).
• If you remove material after becoming aware yourself of an infringement, take reasonable steps to notify the subscriber, to give the subscriber information reasonably sufficient to identify the material and your reasons, and to reinstate the material within a reasonable time after a counter notice, to keep the same protection (s. 88H(3), (4)).