MSU LAW PROFESSOR AND STUDENTS’ POSITION PAPER SUBMITTED TO HONG KONG GOVERNMENT

Paper Addresses Hong Kong Digital Copyright Reform

EAST LANSING, MI – Michigan State University College of Law Professor Peter K. Yu, with the assistance of three MSU Law students, wrote a commissioned position paper that was submitted by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre of the University of Hong Kong to the government of Hong Kong on April 30, 2007.

“Digital Copyright Reform in Hong Kong: Promoting Creativity Without Sacrificing Free Speech” was written in response to the Hong Kong government’s recent consultation on “Copyright Protection in the Digital Environment.” Professor Yu and MSU Law students Danny Chen, ’08, Lisa Hammond, ’07, and Andrew Hebl, ’08, address issues that lie at the intersection of copyright reform and the protection of free speech, free press and privacy. In addition to offering recommendations on whether and how copyright law should be amended, the paper also highlights opportunities created by the Internet and new communications technologies.

Chen, Hammond and Hebl conducted research for the position paper, which ranged from analysis of case law, statutes and international treaties, to the examination of legislative and non-legislative proposals offered in the United States and abroad.

“Training practical lawyers has been a longstanding tradition of MSU College of Law,” said Professor Peter K. Yu, associate professor of law and the founding director of the Intellectual Property & Communications Law Program at MSU College of Law. “When we built the Intellectual Property & Communications Law Program, we had this important mission in mind. I am very glad that our students had this opportunity to put into practice what they have learned in the classroom.”

The position paper is available online at http://jmsc.hku.hk/cms/images/stories/jmscdigitalcopyright.pdf .

The Intellectual Property & Communications Law Program was established in fall 2003 to promote global, interdisciplinary understanding of intellectual property and communications law. Ranked one of the best among the Big Ten law schools, the program’s full-time faculty includes two distinguished scholars in intellectual property, a former attorney-adviser from the Federal Communications Commission, a leading scholar in First Amendment law, and two nationally recognized experts in international trade and sports law. It offers more than 25 courses in the field, a master’s program in intellectual property and communications law for both lawyers and non-lawyers, and a first-year legal writing course focused on intellectual property.

The Journalism and Media Studies Centre of the University of Hong Kong is dedicated to the professional training of journalists in the highest international standards of ethics, skills, knowledge and critical thinking. Established in 1999, the Centre offers graduate and undergraduate degrees, seminars, workshops and courses for news professionals at all levels of expertise. Directed by Professor Yuen-Ying Chan, the Centre’s emphasis is on professional education designed to produce graduates for the local, regional and international media who will practice in English or Chinese or both. The Centre’s faculty have served at senior levels at ABC News, CNN, the New York Times, the Daily News, the South China Morning Post and Dow Jones, among other organizations.

MSU College of Law was founded in 1891 and is a private institution of higher learning devoted exclusively to professional education in law. The Law College is one of only a few private law schools to be affiliated with a research university, enabling it to provide a comprehensive interdisciplinary legal education program. Classes offered in its state-of-the-art facilities provide students the benefits of a Big Ten campus while maintaining the small school culture. Its 2006 graduates achieved a 93 percent bar examination passage rate nationwide and the Law College’s Intellectual Property and Communications Law Program falls in the nation’s top-20 according to U.S. News & World Report. The Law College is one of the oldest continuously operating independent law colleges in the nation. For more information about the Law College, visit www.law.msu.edu.

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