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17. I have bought a lawful copy of a musical CD. Will I infringe the copyright if I convert it into MP3 format so that I can play it on a MP3 player?

Under the current law of Hong Kong , the answer is yes. The conversion of a musical CD into MP3 format involves copying the sound recording and all its underlying works (musical works and lyrics). This is infringement unless you have the consent of the copyright owners. Note that even though you have bought a lawful copy of the CD, this does not mean that you have the consent of the copyright owners to convert the CD into MP3 format. Furthermore, such conversion does not fall within any of the permitted acts under the Copyright Ordinance (please refer to section B).

 

(Note that the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2011, which has yet to be passed into law, contains a provision to exempt such conversion from copyright infringement.)