How will the person who livestreams the movie 'Co Ba Sai Gon' on Facebook be handled?

The young man's act of livestreaming the movie "Miss Saigon" could result in a fine of 15 million - 30 million VND, and could even be prosecuted.

Regarding the incident of livestreaming the movie “Co Ba Sai Gon” on Facebook, the Internal Political Security Department (PA83) - Ba Ria - Vung Tau Provincial Police invited Mr. Nguyen V.Tr (19 years old, a student at a College of Technology in Ba Ria - Vung Tau province) to work.

Representative of the producer of the movie "Miss Saigon" working with the police agency.

According to Mr. Tr's initial report, at noon on November 13, he and his girlfriend bought tickets to see the movie "Co Ba Sai Gon" at a cinema in Vung Tau City. Here, Tr. used his girlfriend's iPhone7 to livestream the movie "Co Ba Sai Gon" that was being shown on the Phim+ page on the social network Facebook.

This page is managed by Tr. and a friend. After about 30 minutes of livestreaming, a cinema staff member came in to check, so Tr. stopped the livestream. Afterwards, the cinema staff invited Tr. outside to work and made a report of the incident. Tr. has removed the video shared on the social networking site.

After the incident, the distributor of the film 'Co Ba Sai Gon' said that they had submitted a request to the authorities to handle the person who distributed this film. According to information from the producer of the film "Co Ba Sai Gon", the damage was estimated at about 250 million VND after the content of the film was spread on social networks.

Regarding the act of using a phone to record a clip of the movie "Co Ba Sai Gon" and then spreading it on Facebook, lawyer Truong Quoc Hoe (Head of Interla Law Office - Hanoi Bar Association) said that the act of communicating the work to the public through the media without consent is an act of copyright infringement.

Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 21 of the Law on Intellectual Property on copyright for cinematographic works and theatrical works: “Organizations and individuals investing finance and technical facilities to produce cinematographic works and theatrical works are owners of the rights specified in Clause 3, Article 19 and Article 20 of this Law”.

Accordingly, only organizations and individuals investing finance and technical facilities to produce cinematographic works and theatrical works have the right to communicate the works to the public by wire, wireless, electronic information networks or any other technical means.

In addition, Clause 10, Article 28 of the Law on Intellectual Property clearly stipulates that the act of duplicating, producing copies, distributing, displaying or communicating a work to the public via communication networks and digital means without the permission of the copyright owner is an act of copyright infringement.

Livestreamer of the movie "Miss Saigon"

Furthermore, according to Clause 1, Article 17 of Decree 131/2013/ND-CP on administrative sanctions for violations of copyright and related rights: "A fine of 15 million to 30 million VND shall be imposed for the act of communicating a work to the public by wire, wireless, electronic information network or any technical means without permission from the copyright owner as prescribed."

Thus, in this case, the young man above can be fined from 15 million VND to 30 million VND for the act of live streaming the movie “Co Ba Sai Gon” on the social network Facebook. In addition, the young man is also forced to remove the copy of the infringing work according to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 17 of Decree 131/2013/ND-CP. If causing damage, he must also compensate for damages outside the contract according to the provisions of civil law in case the damaged party files a lawsuit for compensation.

Regarding the act of approving the posting of clips on Facebook fanpages, lawyer Truong Anh Tu (Hanoi Bar Association) said that the owners of fanpages that approve the posting of violations will be administratively sanctioned according to Decree No. 174/ND-CP dated November 13, 2013 of the Government regulating administrative sanctions in the fields of post, telecommunications, information technology and radio frequencies with the form of a fine.

Accordingly, the act of: "Failure to take necessary measures to prevent access to information or remove illegal information at the request of a competent state agency when transmitting or renting space to store digital information;" (Point b, Clause 3, Article 66) will be subject to a fine of 10 million to 20 million VND.

The lawyers also affirmed that in case the investigating agency investigates and discovers that the young man live-streamed the movie "Co Ba Sai Gon" on social networks for commercial purposes, he may be held criminally responsible under the provisions of Article 170a of the current Penal Code.

According to Article 170a of the Penal Code, in the above case, this young man can be fined from 50 million VND to 500 million VND or reformed without detention for up to two years; or can be fined from 400 million VND to 1 billion VND or imprisoned from 6 months to 3 years./.

According to VOV