General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW6223 / JDOC6223 |
| Course name: | Copyright and Creativity |
| Programme offered under: | LLM Programme / JD Programme |
| Semester: | First |
| Prerequisites / Co-requisites: | No |
| Credit point value: | 9 credits / 6 credits |
| Cap on student numbers: | 50 |
1.2 Course description
The course investigates the relationship between copyright protection and creativity by targeting at creative sectors such as film, music, publishing, and software sectors. Through in depth analysis of the cases and empirical data involving copyright protection or infringement in these industries, the course aims to assess to what extent these sectors have been benefited from or impeded by copyright protection, how “fair use” system can be employed to achieve a better balance between copyright industries and users/consumers of copyrighted works, whether alternative regimes such as public or free licenses including creative commons and open source initiative are helpful in promoting creativity, and finally, how to capitalize or commercialize the copyrights so that the works can generate financial gain for start-up creative companies or individuals. These issues will be discussed in the context of both traditional and internet-related creative sectors and activities such as parody, file-sharing, snippets and thumbnails, streaming, and copying for non-transformative personal use on internet, iPad or iPhone, and online games. The countries or regions that the copyright laws and creative sectors are examined include but not limited to Hong Kong, China, the United States and European Union.
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | Yahong Li | yali@hku.hk | CCT 407 | By email |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
CLO 1 Gain the knowledge of the basic concepts of copyright law.
CLO 2 Understand various theories on the role of copyright in creativity such as natural right theory, personality theory, and economic analysis of copyright law.
CLO 3 Use relevant information and empirical data about the impact of copyright law on creativity to critically examine the limitations of the existing theories.
CLO 4 Apply the knowledge and understanding acquired from the course to the new and uncertain situations and problems involving digital copyright protection and innovation.
CLO 5 Demonstrate an awareness of the impact of the copyright law within the broader economic, environmental and socio-cultural context.
2.2 LLM and JD Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Please refer to the following link:
LLM – https://course.law.hku.hk/llm-plo/
JD – https://course.law.hku.hk/jd-plo/
2.3 Programme Learning Outcomes to be achieved in this course
| PLO A | PLO B | PLO C | PLO D | PLO E | PLO F | |
| CLO 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 4 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Due date | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| Class participation | N/A | 10% | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | |
| Take home exam | TBC | 90% | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| *Feedback method (to be determined by course teacher) | |
| 1 | A general course report to be disseminated through Moodle |
| 2 | Individual feedback to be disseminated by email / through Moodle |
| 3 | Individual review meeting upon appointment |
| 4 | Group review meeting |
| 5 | In-class verbal feedback |
3.2 Assessment Detail
To be advised by course convenor(s).
3.3 Grading Criteria
Please refer to the following link: https://www.law.hku.hk/_files/law_programme_grade_descriptors.pdf
Learning Activities
4.1 Learning Activity Plan
| Lecture: | 3 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
| Private study time: | 9.5 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
Remarks: the normative student study load per credit unit is 25 ± 5 hours (ie. 150 ± 30 hours for a 6-credit course), which includes all learning activities and experiences within and outside of classroom, and any assessment task and examinations and associated preparations.
4.2 Details of Learning Activities
To be advised by course convenor(s).
Learning Resources
5.1 Resources
| Reading materials: | Reading materials are posted on Moodle |
| Core reading list: | TBA |
| Recommended reading list: | TBA |
5.2 Links
Please refer to the following link: http://www.law.hku.hk/course/learning-resources/