In Hong Kong, if you have a Creative Commons licence, your moral rights will not be affected. All Creative Commons licences preserve moral rights but allow others to use the work in ways intended by the licence that might otherwise infringe moral rights.
If you have obtained a 4.0 licence for your material, it means that you have agreed to waive or not to assert any moral rights that you have, but to the limited extent that the public is allowed to exercise their licensed rights. This ensures that the effect of moral rights on the public’s ability to use the work is minimised and that the licence would work internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all the Creative Commons licences seeks to satisfy the moral right of attribution. However, it must be adhered to regardless of whether Hong Kong recognises moral rights.
Whilst earlier versions of Creative Commons licences also seek to minimise the effect that moral rights have on otherwise-permitted purposes, the language within these versions of licences are different because they are jurisdiction-specific in relation to the jurisdiction’s moral rights legislation. Hence, if you wish to apply for a ported licence to your work, you should review the language of the moral rights in the relevant licence.
Key takeaways
- If you have a Creative Commons licence for your work in Hong Kong, your moral rights will not be affected.
- However, you need to pay specific attention to your Creative Commons licence if its version is earlier than the 4.0 version.