The Hong Kong SAR Government has enacted the Intellectual
Property (Miscellaneous Amendment) Ordinance 2000 with effect
from April 1, 2001. The amended Copyright Ordinance and
the Prevention of Copyright Piracy Ordinance, published
at http://www.ipd.gov.hk/eng/intellectual_property/ip_laws/copyright.htm
is of special relevance to all computer software licensing
requirements in the departments of the University. However,
it should be noted that there is no special software or
program that could automatically detect whether all the
software installed in a computer has legitimate licenses.
To assist departments to comply with the Ordinance with
regard to software licensing on University-owned computer
equipment, the Computer Centre has drawn up the following
guidelines for reference of departments:
1. Each department should designate a staff member to be
the “Software License Administration Officer”,
who will be responsible for coordinating and auditing the
legitimate use of computer software in the department.
2. The Software License Administration Officer should be
in charge of the following tasks:
(a) To compile and keep an updated inventory record of
all computer software used in the department. An example
of a form with the relevant information to be recorded
is attached in Appendix I.
(b) To coordinate the auditing of software used in the
department to ensure that all software is properly licensed
for legitimate use.
(c) To eliminate all software without proper licenses
or licensing arrangements. In particular, it should be
noted that all demonstration and trial copies are considered
to be illegal after expiry.
3. Each department should formulate and implement a software
audit process for auditing the legitimate use of computer
software within the department. Please be informed that
the Finance and Enterprise Office carries out auditing of
software licenses of departments regularly to ensure legitimate
use of software in the University. It is also advisable
for departments to carry out similar audits to ensure the
compliance with the amended Ordinance at the department
level. The Software License Administration Officers of departments
can refer to the following web pages of the Software &
Information Industry Association for information about software
tools for software license audit and compliance:
4. Departments have to formally remind all its members,
both staff and students, to provide the legitimate licenses
on their computers for any software NOT covered by software
licenses arranged through the department in order to avoid
any legal offences. Individual members shall have to keep
records of their own software licenses for auditing purpose
as well.
5. The business Software Alliance (BSA) has provided suggestion
on tools and advice for software licensing management against
software piracy. Departments can refer to the webpage http://www.bsa.org/hongkong
for more information.
6. For further enquiries related to the above guidelines,
please contact Mr. T.Y. Shen of the Computer Centre (email:
sty@cc.hku.hk, telephone:
2241-5229)
Ng Nam
Director, Computer Centre
Last update: December 4, 2004
Note: This form may be customized according to individual
needs of a department.
