Challenges Abound in the Battle Against Pirated Football and Movie Websites in Vietnam

The discussion on September 26 on “Solving the problem of copyright protection for the music-cinema-digital television industry” which saw significant participation from various government agencies and over 40 leading media organizations, in which the famous newspaper dantri.com wrote:

Government authorities have employed various measures to prevent pirated football and movie websites in Vietnam, but the ‘battle’ against copyright-infringing websites still encounters many difficulties. Copyright-violating websites have proliferated, making them difficult to control.

On September 26th, in Hanoi, the Vietnam Content Creation Alliance, the Vietnam Digital Media Association, and the multimedia company Thudo Multimedia jointly organized a seminar titled ‘Solving the Copyright Protection Challenge for the Music, Film, and Digital Television Industry

The seminar primarily focused on areas that frequently encounter content copyright violations, including film, digital television, and music.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Vu Kiem Van, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Digital Media Association (VDCA), emphasized that the issue of content copyright protection, especially in the current digital transformation context, faces numerous difficulties and challenges.

Mr. Pham Hoang Hai, Director of the Digital Content Copyright Center under the Department of Radio, Television, and Electronic Information (Ministry of Information and Communications), echoed this perspective. According to Mr. Hai, copyright infringement in Vietnam is currently complex, with a multitude of copyright-violating websites streaming football matches and showing pirated movies illegally.

Mr. Hai cited statistics from SimilarWeb, indicating that from August 2022 to August 2023, 70 pirated football streaming websites attracted over 1.5 billion views in Vietnam. SimilarWeb data also revealed that more than 200 pirated movie streaming websites garnered approximately 120 million views per month, with the top 10 pirated movie websites accumulating over 66 million views each month.

Not limited to sports or cinema, many websites also infringe upon the copyright of Japanese manga. Mr. Hai noted that copyright infringement related to manga in Vietnam has elicited strong reactions from copyright holders in Japan.

The distinctive feature of these copyright-infringing websites is their use of foreign domain names and servers, concealment of owner information, public operations, and frequent domain name changes whenever they are blocked.

A typical violation method employed by these websites is immediately streaming content on social media or editing and posting content on various web platforms right after the copyright owner broadcasts it on platforms such as online TV services and terrestrial television.

“The prevalence of digital content copyright violations on the internet is widespread. For instance, when a match is broadcast on K+ channel and its affiliates, it is immediately mirrored on pirated websites and apps,” shared lawyer Pham Thanh Thuy, responsible for copyright enforcement at K+ digital television.

Lawyer Thuy added that according to statistics from Media Partners Asia, Vietnam ranks third in the region and ninth in the world in terms of copyright violation rates, with 15.5 million people regularly accessing and viewing content on pirated websites.

Measures to prevent websites from piracy of content

The Department of Radio, Television, and Electronic Information stated that it is currently collaborating with the Department of Information Security and copyright owners to implement various measures to combat pirated websites.

One of the most common measures is to verify and investigate these pirated websites and send requests to internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to these infringing websites for users in Vietnam.

According to statistics, from August 2022 to August 2023, the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information coordinated with the Department of Information Security and copyright holders to block nearly 1,000 football websites. pirated products like xoilac.1tiengruoi.link, xoivo4.com, coichua.net, tammao.tv, 90link.com, xoilac.live, Xemtructiep.xyz…

The list of violating websites is published and continuously updated on banquyen.gov.vn.

Measures to block access to pirated sites have been effective, contributing to changing user habits.

However, the above technical measures still have some shortcomings, that is, the blocking time is still not unified among ISPs; Some ISPs block it immediately, but some ISPs block it after 3 business days or longer. In addition, this solution only prevents access for users in Vietnam, while users in other countries can still access infringing websites.

Representatives of the Center for Copyright Protection of Digital Content also proposed solutions to effectively prevent online copyright infringement.

That is to establish a focal point for coordination between copyright owners, state management agencies and ISPs; establish a flexible blocking mechanism for new pirated web domains that arise after old websites have been blocked; Apply various appropriate technical measures to block access (DNS, IP, CDN). At the same time, it is necessary to develop automatic blocking tools for all parties to use to minimize time and human resources.

For more: dantri.com