VTV may stop broadcasting World Cup due to copyright infringement

Copyright infringement is rampant.

In just 3 days since the 2018 FIFA World Cup opened, Vietnam Television has discovered more than 700 cases of copyright infringement in broadcasting the tournament on the Internet.

According to VTV representatives, these accounts brazenly used the name VTV Television and prepared another backup website in case this signal line was blocked. After about 2-3 minutes, these violations were blocked. However, the more violations were reported, the more the websites continuously changed IP addresses to share illegal signals.

Faced with serious copyright infringement of the World Cup, VTV has sent an official dispatch to the Ministry of Information and Communications, hoping to work with the Ministry to take strong action before things get out of control.

According to VTV's official dispatch, after officially owning the media copyright and becoming the official broadcaster of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Finals in Vietnam, the Television Station has shared the copyright with many media agencies and implemented copyright protection measures in accordance with FIFA's regulations and requirements such as communication, working with network operators Viettel, FPT, VNPT and organizing teams to detect and report violations...

However, in the first 3 days of the World Cup (June 14-16, 2018), copyright infringement in Vietnam is considered very serious. Many websites still livestream and post clips that violate copyright; livestreaming of matches is also rampant on Facebook and Youtube.

Currently, VTV is still actively coordinating with FIFA to handle violations. However, there are some cases that need to be considered, intervened and strictly handled by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

World Cup may be stopped broadcasting on VTV

According to VTV, the act of livestreaming matches on websites directly violates FIFA regulations, affecting the ownership of media copyright for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Responding on VTV, lawyer Phan Vu Tuan, Head of Phan Law Vietnam Law Office, said that there are 3 common acts of copyright infringement of the World Cup today. Of which, downloading software through applications on phones and computers is considered the most common and complicated.

Next is the form of using websites to refer to TV channels of VTV, Viettel, ... Right in the opening match of the 2018 World Cup, according to Phan Law Firm, there were about 28 websites using this form to illegally exploit TV copyright. In addition, many other accounts also use YouTube or Facebook to livestream the 2018 World Cup matches.

VTV representatives emphasized that if blatant copyright violations continue, it will be very difficult for the station to obtain and maintain the copyright to broadcast major international events such as the World Cup.

Meanwhile, a VTV leader shared: "Once a violation occurs, especially a violation that causes the program signal from Vietnam to spill over to foreign countries, exceeding geographical limits, then we have violated the contract and FIFA has the right to stop the broadcast at any time."

According to VTV, any entity that violates copyright in any form will be held legally responsible for any losses incurred by Vietnam Television. At the same time, the violating entity will also be directly responsible for any losses incurred according to FIFA regulations.