Hong Kong authorities have postponed the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2025, which would have introduced an “opt-out” mechanism for text and data mining in AI model training. Instead, the government will first draft operational guidelines on how the mechanism would work in practice. The bill, originally due before the Legislative Council in early 2025, was removed from its agenda last August and did not appear in the 2026 policy address or the city’s first five-year plan. Critics said the opt-out approach placed excessive burden on copyright holders and pushed for an “opt-in” model instead. Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Algernon Yau said the government needed to weigh views from a 2024 consultation. There is no timetable for the guidelines.
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