Copyright: GenAI

Copyright Protection for AI-Generated Works in Hong Kong

• Under Hong Kong’s Copyright Ordinance, computer-generated works are copyrightable.
• The author of such works is the person who made the necessary arrangements for creation (Section 11, sub-section 3).
• Copyright lasts 50 years from the year the work was made (Section 17, sub-section 6).

Government Initiatives on AI & Copyright

• Public Consultation (Jul 2024 - Feb 2025): The HKSAR's Intellectual Property Department (IPD) conducted a "Public Consultation on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence (2024)" on AI and copyright.
• Released a Paper (Feb 18, 2025): The government published a paper “Enhancement of the Copyright Ordinance regarding Protection for Artificial Intelligence Technology Development – Outcomes of Public Consultation and Proposed Way Forward", outlining future copyright law amendments.
• Key takeaways: 
  • A Text and Data Mining (TDM) exception will be introduced, allowing data mining for both commercial and non-commercial use, provided it meets the three-step test (lawful access, no infringing copies, record-keeping).
  • An "opt-out" mechanism will let copyright owners prevent their works from being used for AI training by explicitly reserving their rights, including machine-readable signals for online content (details on p.12).

Protecting Works from AI Training

Copyright owners can take additional steps to prevent AI tools from using their work, such as:

• Using Glaze (from the University of Chicago), which includes "WebGlaze" to help artists keep their work from being scraped and used by tools like MidJourney or StableDiffusion without their consent.
• Implementing robots.txt to block web crawlers. This GitHub site maintains a list of AI agents and robots to block.

Useful References

• Check policies on AI training via the Generative AI Licensing Agreement Tracker.

• How Copyright Relates to GenAi from University College of London (UCL): while HKSAR law and British law are different, the HKSAR takes reference from UK law and other common law jurisdictions, and the language of the ordinance for computer generated work is quite similar.

The HKSAR is a separate legal jurisdiction from the rest of  China. However, it is useful to be aware of some recent issues in copyright and GenAI in China.

• In November 2023, the Beijing internet court ruled that AI generated content is copyrightable.
• In February 2024, the Guangzhou internet court ruled that a GenAI service company was liable for copyright violation.