Piracy Problems in Hong Kong

Unlike China and Taiwan, Hong Kong does not need to do anything special in order to be accepted as a member of the WTO as it is a founding member of the international organization. However, like China and Taiwan, Hong Kong's IP protection was primarily the result of pressure from the international community, particularly from the USA. In describing what set Hong Kong apart from China, Gargan (1995) noted the pervasiveness of piracy in all layers of the Hong Kong society. Pirated material was found not only in the back alleys of Kowloon but also in the executive suites of major companies. This made him conclude that piracy was a problem deeply rooted in the territory. Due to the promulgation of a series of anti-piracy ordinances and the effort by government departments, Hong Kong's piracy rate in 2001 was 11 percent lower than that of 1996 and was removed from the US Special 301 Watch List. According to a survey conducted in 57 countries in 2001, Hong Kong ranked 24th with 53 percent of software piracy rate (Hong Kong Standard, April 4, 2003).

Cultural Factor and Public Awareness
Similar to the case of China, the ethics of Confucianism is a powerful force shaping the modern Hong Kong society, though to a lesser extent. Confucian compliment to copying others' works has had a negative impact on the territory's respect to creativity, originality and intellectual property right. Compared with the Western populace, it is more difficult for the Hong Kong Chinese to understand the notion of intangible asset, such as copyright and patent, and to acknowledge the negative effects of software piracy (Ho, 1995).

Education
The education system of Hong Kong is very much based on a force-fed environment. Children are ingrained with a plentitude of information at a very early age. The result of such an education system is low level of originality and widespread copying activities, be it piracy of computer software, music, movies or product designs (Ho, 1995).