Copyright violations still rife in Vietnam

At a April 23 workshop titled "Copyright protection for movie and TV programmes in digital era," Phan Vu Tuan, a lawyer and office manager of the Intellectual Property Association (IPA), said not everybody wants to pay for movies/TV programmes they can watch for free.

Besides, many websites can make huge profits due to the feeble copyright protection. And the most important thing is producers do not know how to protect their products.

There are many websites allowing viewers to watch or download movies and TV programmes online for free and making money from advertisements. None of them indicate that they possess copyrights for any of them.

The copyright violations have destroyed many producers.

Vietnam has enacted many laws to protect intellectual property, which make internet service providers responsible for online content.

Pham Thi Kim Oanh, deputy head of the Vietnam Copyright Office, said Vietnam has many multilateral and bilateral agreements and treaties related to copyright protection, such as Berne for literature, arts and science; Rome for video and sound recording; Geneva for music producers; Brussels for programme transfer through satellite; and TRIPS for intellectual property related to trade.

She said copyright owners should apply modern technology to protect themselves, complain to relevant authorities in case of violations, and be ready to go to the court.

Laws also stipulate fines of VND250 million (US$12,000) for copyright violations by individuals and VND500 million (US$24,0000) by organisations.

But she warned that laws cannot cover all violations since in the digital era copyright violations are becoming more and more complicated and users do not want to pay.

A shortage of human and financial resources and the limited experience in protecting copyrights in the digital environment has worsened the situation.

Nguyen Van Vien, chairman of the IPA, said widespread copyright violation will hurt the development of the country in the context of global integration and the knowledge economy.

Jung Taesun, director general of the Republic of Korean-owned CJ E&M Vietnam, spoke about how his country dealt with copyright violations.

In 2011 the RoK watched around 2.7 billion contents. Pirated products were worth around US$4 billion and legal products, only US$1 billion.

Then authorities increased the penalties for copyright violations by comprehensively changing the law. But the country also began the Illegal Content Obstruction Programme to curb all piracy, he said.

The programme automatically tracks contents copied from the internet and stops the process. It can recognise songs, videos, games, and books, even when downloaded on to mobile devices, according to Jung.

The two countries have stepped up co-operation for copyright protection since January this year, with the RoK Copyright Centre opening a representative office in Vietnam.

Kim Hong Eop, chief of the office, said there are 100,000 Vietnamese living and working in the RoK and 120,000 Koreans living and working in Vietnam. Thus, copyright protection is becoming more and more important as economic and cultural co-operation between the two countries increases.