Copyright infringement will be fined billions

"Currently, the Copyright Office has submitted to the Government a decree on administrative sanctions for copyright violations. Accordingly, violators can be fined up to 500 million VND and individuals can be fined up to 250 million VND" - Mr. To Van Long, former head of the Copyright Office's Copyright Office, said.

The skit "Teaching a Wife to Love" written, edited, directed and acted by Xuan Bac and Tu Long was secretly filmed and released by a company without permission.

The workshop "Rights to copy works and collective management solutions" took place on the morning of September 18 in Hanoi, organized by the Vietnam Copyright Association in collaboration with the Institute of Social Science Information. At the workshop, delegates expressed concerns about the current situation of copyright infringement and copying of works in our country.

According to poet Doan Thi Lam Luyen - Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Copyright Association, we are currently facing widespread copyright infringement, in which the most common infringement is copying works using digital technology (digital copying) and illegally using works online.

"It is a fact that the majority of rights holders do not fully understand their rights. They are indifferent or tolerate infringement. Authors and copyright owners do not have the awareness to unite together in collective action to protect their interests" - poet Doan Thi Lam Luyen frankly said.

Mr. Mai Xuan Huy - Deputy Director of the Institute of Linguistics shares the same view on the increasing number of plagiarism and "stealing". "Even at the Institute of Linguistics, we have had many dictionaries copied in extremely sophisticated ways. And it is all my friends (I do not want to mention their names) who do this, so it is very difficult to handle" - Mr. Mai Xuan Huy cited.

Speaking at the workshop, Dr. Cao Kim Anh, Standing Member of the Vietnam Copyright Association, emphasized that illegal copying will have many impacts on authors and society. It not only prevents authors from receiving remuneration from using their works but also destroys creativity.

The majority of delegates agreed that in order to protect copyrights, it is necessary to raise awareness among users of works, treat authors and works with culture... To do that, it is necessary to widely propagate to raise awareness among authors, non-fiction works and users of works about copyrights.

On the sidelines of the workshop, Mr. To Van Long-The former head of the Copyright Office said that based on the application, each year this unit handles 30 cases of copyright infringement. And currently, handling violations is not simple.

"Currently, the Copyright Office has submitted to the Government a decree on administrative sanctions for copyright infringement. Accordingly, violators can be fined up to 500 million VND and individuals can be fined up to 250 million VND. More serious violations can be handled in civil form. The highest fine can be up to billions of VND and 3 years in prison" - Mr. Long revealed.

According to Mr. To Van Long, in addition to the administrative penalty decree that has been submitted to the Government, the Copyright Office is also collecting opinions to issue regulations on royalties.

According to Vietnam.net - DP