IPR in Hong Kong
From the December 2007 issue of the Bulletin, the official publication of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce:
“Taking work home could soon be a thing of the past for many overworked staff in Hong Kong. Revisions to the copyright ordinance will make it illegal for employees to use their own computers to do work related duties.”…
“Stephen Selby, Director of Intellectual Property, elaborated at the Chamber’s November 2 roundtable luncheon that: ‘Where staff are required to take work home, then the company should provide them with the computer and all the software.’
This raises some interesting questions. For example, does answering a few emails qualify as as “taking work home?” What happens if the work in question is being done with open source software, like OpenOffice? Or if the work is being done with a Web 2.0 application, where the only software actually loaded on the computer is Linux and a Firefox browser?
It won’t be a big deal for Fortune 500 companies to issue their employees with laptops and instructions that they are not to do any work on their home PCs. For Hong Kong’s legions of small businesses, it will be a little more complicated.
Posted: December 18th, 2007 under Business, Technology.
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