Which territories do use the copyright act 1988 ?

[tiddlewiddle]

i know hk originating works are protected by the same act

but what about virgin islands ?

the situation for overseas territories is not clear for me

[CopyrightAid]

Sorry, but I don't really see what you are getting at ...

I presume you mean the 1988 Copyright Designs and Patents Act?

The 1988 Copyright Designs and Patents Act is a UK Act, it applies to the UK - I can't see how it could ever apply further. UK law is exactly that - the law in the UK.

I expect that HK have adopted much UK legislation as the basis for their law - they were after all a Britsih territory until relatively recently. BUT that is not the same as saying HK is subject to UK law - HK has it's own law, it just happens to follow the traditions of the English model as per the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

If you are looking for information about how copyright work is protected internationally, may I suggest that the Berne Convention is a better place to start.

[AndyJ]

Just to elaborate on CopyrightAid's answer, sections 157, 207, 255 and 304 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 detail the extent of the various parts of the Act. The extent has subsequently been amended to reflect the devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies. Broadly speaking the Act applies throughout the UK and parts of it also apply to the Crown Dependencies of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
Additionally subsection (6) of Section 304 provides that an Order in Council may be used to extend the provisions of the Act to certain other countries, which would include the 14 overseas territories of the UK. I am not aware of any Orders in Council which have invoked this section, but then many Orders are not published. And of course any case law decisions handed down by the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court (formerly the House of Lords) and the Privy Council would invariably take effect in the overseas territories etc, and will be taken into account by other jurisdictions having the same basic legal system, such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada.