The ‘battle’ against illegal football and movie websites in Vietnam faces many difficulties.

The explosion of the digital revolution in the television industry is currently facing unprecedented challenges in protecting content ownership and information security. This demands the development and implementation of new solutions to ensure that content is not infringed upon by copyright-related risks.

On September 26, an event titled “Solving the Issue of Content Ownership Protection in the Music, Film, and Digital Television Industry” was organized by the Vietnam Digital Communication Association (VDCA) and Thudo Multimedia. The event aimed to seek innovative solutions to address the existing challenges in the industry. Following the seminar, the online news portal dantri.com shared information about the event:

Various measures have been applied by authorities to combat illegal football and movie websites in Vietnam. However, the ‘battle’ against websites violating copyrights still faces many difficulties. Websites violating content copyrights are proliferating and challenging to control.

On September 26, in Hanoi, the Vietnam Digital Communication Association, Vietnam Digital Media Association, and Thủ Đô Multimedia jointly organized a seminar titled “Solving the Copyright Protection Puzzle for the Music, Film, and Digital Television Industry.”

Mr. Vu Kiem Van, Vice Chairman and General Secretary of the Vietnam Digital Communication Association, delivered the opening speech. The seminar primarily focused on areas where content copyrights are frequently violated, including film, digital television, and music.

In his opening speech, Mr. Vũ Kiêm Văn, Vice Chairman and General Secretary of the Vietnam Digital Communication Association (VDCA), emphasized that protecting content copyrights, especially in the current digital transformation context, faces numerous difficulties and challenges.

Mr. Pham Hoang Hai, Director of the Center for Digital Content Copyright under the Radio, Television, and Electronic Information Department (Ministry of Information and Communications), shared the same viewpoint. According to Mr. Hải, copyright infringement in Vietnam is currently very complex, with numerous websites illegally broadcasting football matches and screening pirated films.

Mr. Hải cited statistics from SimilarWeb, which showed that from August 2022 to August 2023, 70 illegal football streaming websites attracted over 1.5 billion views in Vietnam. SimilarWeb’s data also indicated that over 200 pirate film websites garnered approximately 120 million monthly views, with the top 10 pirate film websites alone accumulating over 66 million monthly views.

In addition to violating sports and film content copyrights, many websites also infringe upon the copyrights of Japanese comics. Mr. Hải stated that copyright infringement of Japanese comics in Vietnam has faced strong reactions from copyright holders in Japan.

The characteristics of these content copyright violation websites include using domains and servers located abroad, hiding ownership information, conducting activities openly, and frequently changing domain names when blocked.

Typical forms of copyright infringement by these websites involve immediately broadcasting content illegally after copyright holders have aired it on platforms such as online television services and terrestrial digital television. The culprits livestream the content on social media or edit and upload it to websites.

“The situation of digital content copyright infringement is rampant on the internet. For example, when a match is broadcast on K+ channel and K+’s affiliate distributors, it is immediately broadcast on pirate websites and apps,” said lawyer Phạm Thanh Thủy, in charge of copyright infringement prevention for K+ digital television.

Lawyer Thủy further shared that, according to statistics from Media Partners Asia, Vietnam currently ranks third in the region and ninth globally in terms of copyright infringement rates, with 15.5 million people regularly accessing and viewing content on pirate websites.

Measures to Block Copyright Infringing Websites

The Radio, Television, and Electronic Information Department stated that it has been collaborating with the Information Security Department and copyright owners to apply various measures to block pirate websites.

One of the most common measures is verifying and investigating pirate websites and sending requests to internet service providers (ISPs) to block access for Vietnamese users to infringing websites.

According to statistics, from August 2022 to August 2023, the Radio, Television, and Electronic Information Department, in cooperation with the Information Security Department and copyright owners, has successfully blocked nearly 1,000 pirate football websites, such as xoilac.1tiengruoi.link, xoivo4.com, coichua.net, tammao.tv, 90link.com, xoilac.live, xemtructiep.xyz, and more.

The list of infringing websites is publicly disclosed and continuously updated on the website banquyen.gov.vn.

Blocking access to infringing websites has been effective and has contributed to changing user habits.

However, the technical measure mentioned above still has some drawbacks, such as the lack of uniformity in blocking times among ISPs. Some ISPs block immediately, while others block after three working days or longer. Additionally, this solution only prevents access for users in Vietnam, while users in other countries can still access the infringing websites.

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

These include establishing cooperation between copyright owners, state management agencies, and ISPs; setting up flexible mechanisms to block new pirate websites that emerge after the old ones are blocked; and applying various technical measures to block access (DNS, IP, CDN). Furthermore, developing automatic blocking tools for users to minimize time and human resources.

Read more at: dantri.com.vn