Digital copyright infringement is increasingly common in many different forms, causing many serious consequences.
Faced with this difficult problem, on September 26, a workshop with the topic “Protecting intellectual property rights in the music, film and digital television industries” was organized by the Vietnam Digital Media Association (Vietnam Digital Media Association). VDCA) and Thu Do Multimedia to provide optimal technology solutions for the above problems. Participating in the seminar, hoabinhtv.vn newspaper also shared the same opinion:
Alongside its outstanding advantages, the digital revolution in the fields of film and television is presenting challenges in content copyright protection.
During the seminar titled ‘Solving the Copyright Protection Puzzle for the Digital Music, Film, and TV Industry,’ organized by the Digital Content Creative Alliance of Vietnam (DCCA) in collaboration with various entities on September 26th, delegates emphasized that well-known online film distributors have become crucial players in the internet entertainment ecosystem by catering to the demand for limitless content.
However, ensuring the integrity and exclusivity of distributed content has become a significant concern and a puzzle that content owners and distributors must prioritize.
According to the delegates, in addition to its remarkable benefits, the digital transformation in music and television has introduced challenges in content security and copyright protection. Therefore, there is a need for solutions to safeguard content from copyright infringement risks.
Representatives of the Vietnam Digital Communications Association (VDCA) noted that, although domain blocking measures have been implemented in Vietnam, and digital rights management (DRM) solutions like Widevine, FairPlay, and PlayReady have been deployed to prevent unauthorized access and distribution, the current copyright protection solutions are still insufficient and require multifaceted approaches to address existing risks. Specifically, content providers face challenges with DRM vulnerabilities, such as the exploitation of packet spoofing to deceive license servers and bypass authorization, allowing content to be accessed by untrusted accounts.
Furthermore, OTT television providers and online distributors are grappling with other risks, necessitating comprehensive copyright protection solutions, including issues related to screen recording devices, the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) to circumvent geographical restrictions, and the unauthorized distribution of content from one country to another.
The seminar “Copyright protection for the music – film – digital television industry” was held on the morning of September 26.
Mr. Vu Kiem Van, Secretary-General of VDCA, pointed out that content copyright protection, especially in the current era of digital transformation, poses numerous challenges. This is a matter of great concern for creative enterprises and digital content businesses.
To address these threats, the seminar delegates unanimously agreed that, alongside governance policies and management, technology plays a crucial role. One of the technology solutions that garnered interest at the seminar is the Sigma Active Observer (SAO) solution.
This solution not only offers the security layer of Sigma Multi-DRM but also observes and monitors every aspect of content distribution and online broadcasting activities. Notably, with the application of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, this solution can identify abnormal behaviors and potential threats at every stage, including detecting cross-border distribution violations and packet spoofing. Additionally, it delves into user behavior patterns, promptly identifying suspicious activities and protecting against interference.
The digital revolution in the television industry is currently facing unprecedented challenges in terms of content security and copyright protection. These difficulties necessitate the emergence of new solutions to ensure that content remains unaffected by a variety of copyright infringement-related risks.
On September 26th, under the theme ‘Addressing Copyright Protection Issues in the Music, Film, and Digital Television Industry,’ the Vietnam Digital Communications Association (VDCA) collaborated with Hanoi Multimedia to organize an event aimed at finding innovative solutions to these challenges.
Following the seminar, the online news portal vn.economy also published an article:
Vietnam ranks third in the region in terms of copyright infringement, with 15.5 million people regularly accessing illegal websites. In 2022, copyright infringement caused Vietnam losses of $350 million…
The seminar “Copyright protection for the music – film – digital television industry” was held on the morning of September 26.
At the seminar ‘Solving the Copyright Protection Puzzle for the Digital Music, Film, and Television Industry’ held on September 26 in Hanoi, many experts believe that if Vietnam effectively combats copyright violations, it will create favorable conditions for the development of the digital content industry.
Copyright Violations in Vietnam: Third in the Region, Ninth in the World Mr. Pham Hoang Hai, Director of the Center for Measurement of Radio and Television Broadcasting and Electronic Information, an entity under the Ministry of Information and Communications, stated that copyright violations are currently complex, with numerous illegal websites (pirate websites) for both football and movies. According to SimilarWeb data, there are currently about 70 pirate football websites, with over 1.5 billion views in 2022 and 2023.
SimilarWeb’s data also indicates that there are over 200 pirate movie websites attracting approximately 120 million views per month, with the top 10 receiving over 66 million views each month. Recently, some pirate websites have shifted to the Japanese anime genre. Copyright infringement in the realm of manga has garnered strong reactions from copyright owners in Japan regarding violations in Vietnam.
Mr. Pham Hoang Hai, Director of the Digital Content Copyright Center, Department of Broadcasting, Television and Electronic Information, Ministry of Information and Communications shared about the situation of digital content copyright infringement in Vietnam.
Mr. Pham Hoang Hai, Director of the Center for Measurement of Radio and Television Broadcasting and Electronic Information Copyright infringement is highly complex, with numerous pirate websites for both football and movies.
According to statistics, from August 2022 to August 2023, the Center for Measurement of Radio and Television Broadcasting and Electronic Information has cooperated with the Information Security Agency and copyright owners to block nearly 1,000 pirate football websites such as xoilac.1tiengruoi.link, xoivo4.com, coichua.net, tammao.tv, 90link.com, xoilac.live, and xemtructiep.xyz. The list of infringing websites is published on the copyright.gov.vn website.
Lawyer Pham Thanh Thuy, in charge of copyright infringement prevention at K+ Digital Television, cited Media Partners Asia data, stating that Vietnam ranks third in the region for the copyright violation rate, with 15.5 million people regularly accessing illegal websites. However, according to Thuy, when measured per capita, Vietnam ranks first in the region for copyright violations.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Han shares about the Sigma Active Observer (SAO) solution, which integrates AI in digital copyright protection.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Han, CEO of Hanoi Multimedia Company, added that Vietnam ranks third in copyright violations in Southeast Asia and ninth globally. Eighty percent of violations occur on digital platforms, with the most infringed content including television programs, films, music, and books. “Copyright infringement in Vietnam in 2022 resulted in approximately $350 million in damages,” Han said, adding that the global copyright infringement damages for the film, music, and television industries in 2022 amounted to $65 billion.
Effective Measures Against Copyright Infringement Will Require Additional Investment Analysts believe that the characteristics of copyright-infringing websites include the use of international domain names and hidden information services, public operations, and frequent domain name changes when blocked. These pirate websites often display harmful advertisements, gambling, and casinos.
A typical form of copyright infringement on digital platforms is that after copyright owners broadcast or publish content on platforms such as OTT, terrestrial digital television, and satellite digital television, violators immediately engage in live streaming or re-upload the content on social media, or cut and publish the content.
According to Mr. Pham Hoang Hai, technical measures are being implemented, with the Center for Measurement of Radio and Television Broadcasting and Electronic Information working together with the Information Security Agency (under the Ministry of Information and Communications) and copyright owners to detect copyright infringements, verify and investigate infringing content, and request Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access for Internet users in Vietnam to infringing websites. In other words, users in Vietnam using smartphones and computers will be unable to access infringing websites, while users abroad can still access them. In this case, the managing entity only blocks access within Vietnam’s territory.
The process involves copyright owners submitting applications with supporting documents demonstrating their rights and evidence of infringements. State agencies will review and decide on the block, after which ISPs (Internet service providers) will proceed to block and stop providing DNS services for the domains of pirate websites, as requested by state agencies.
Lawyer Pham Thanh Thuy stated that there are currently various technical measures to combat copyright violations in the digital environment, such as technical measures – creating codes and locks to prevent unauthorized access, such as encrypting content using DRM methods. When some individuals intentionally violate copyright despite the presence of codes, additional measures like fingerprinting or watermarking may be applied. Each subscriber receives a unique identifier, and if that person illegally live streams content from their subscription on the internet, television stations can activate that subscriber’s identifier and thereby identify the copyright infringer.
Additionally, there are legal measures to support copyright owners, including administrative, civil, criminal, and Notice & Takedown measures. However, according to Thuy, the implementation of legal measures faces many challenges. Furthermore, in today’s conditions, applying administrative, civil, and criminal measures is very difficult, and the duration of cases is lengthy, about 2-3 years. A typical example is the Phimmoi case, which lasted 4 years.
The Center for Digital Copyright Protection and many experts believe that to effectively prevent online copyright infringement, there must be coordination between copyright owners, state management agencies, and ISPs; a flexible blocking mechanism must be established to block newly emerging domains after blocking; different technical measures must be applied to block access (DNS, IP, CDN). Moreover, the development of automatic blocking tools should be considered to reduce time and human resources.
“In a total of 15.5 million subscribers who watch pirated content, if only 10% of them switch to legal subscriptions, the companies will have additional funds to reinvest in producing or acquiring the rights to valuable content. This will contribute to the development of the digital content industry in Vietnam,” said Lawyer Pham Thanh Thuy.”
The digital revolution in the television industry is currently facing unprecedented challenges in terms of content security and copyright protection. These difficulties necessitate the emergence of new solutions to ensure that content remains unaffected by a variety of copyright infringement-related risks.
On September 26th, under the theme ‘Addressing Copyright Protection Issues in the Music, Film, and Digital Television Industry,’ the Vietnam Digital Communications Association (VDCA) collaborated with Hanoi Multimedia to organize an event aimed at finding innovative solutions to these challenges.
Following the seminar, the online news portal baoangiang.com also published an article:
Vietnam ranks third in the region in terms of copyright infringement, with 15.5 million people regularly accessing illegal websites. In 2022, copyright infringement caused Vietnam losses of $350 million…
The seminar “Copyright protection for the music – film – digital television industry” was held on the morning of September 26.
At the seminar ‘Solving the Copyright Protection Puzzle for the Digital Music, Film, and Television Industry’ held on September 26 in Hanoi, many experts believe that if Vietnam effectively combats copyright violations, it will create favorable conditions for the development of the digital content industry.
Copyright Violations in Vietnam: Third in the Region, Ninth in the World Mr. Pham Hoang Hai, Director of the Center for Measurement of Radio and Television Broadcasting and Electronic Information, an entity under the Ministry of Information and Communications, stated that copyright violations are currently complex, with numerous illegal websites (pirate websites) for both football and movies. According to SimilarWeb data, there are currently about 70 pirate football websites, with over 1.5 billion views in 2022 and 2023.
SimilarWeb’s data also indicates that there are over 200 pirate movie websites attracting approximately 120 million views per month, with the top 10 receiving over 66 million views each month. Recently, some pirate websites have shifted to the Japanese anime genre. Copyright infringement in the realm of manga has garnered strong reactions from copyright owners in Japan regarding violations in Vietnam.
Mr. Pham Hoang Hai, Director of the Digital Content Copyright Center, Department of Broadcasting, Television and Electronic Information, Ministry of Information and Communications shared about the situation of digital content copyright infringement in Vietnam.
Mr. Pham Hoang Hai, Director of the Center for Measurement of Radio and Television Broadcasting and Electronic Information Copyright infringement is highly complex, with numerous pirate websites for both football and movies.
According to statistics, from August 2022 to August 2023, the Center for Measurement of Radio and Television Broadcasting and Electronic Information has cooperated with the Information Security Agency and copyright owners to block nearly 1,000 pirate football websites such as xoilac.1tiengruoi.link, xoivo4.com, coichua.net, tammao.tv, 90link.com, xoilac.live, and xemtructiep.xyz. The list of infringing websites is published on the copyright.gov.vn website.
Lawyer Pham Thanh Thuy, in charge of copyright infringement prevention at K+ Digital Television, cited Media Partners Asia data, stating that Vietnam ranks third in the region for the copyright violation rate, with 15.5 million people regularly accessing illegal websites. However, according to Thuy, when measured per capita, Vietnam ranks first in the region for copyright violations.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Han shares about the Sigma Active Observer (SAO) solution, which integrates AI in digital copyright protection.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Han, CEO of Hanoi Multimedia Company, added that Vietnam ranks third in copyright violations in Southeast Asia and ninth globally. Eighty percent of violations occur on digital platforms, with the most infringed content including television programs, films, music, and books. “Copyright infringement in Vietnam in 2022 resulted in approximately $350 million in damages,” Han said, adding that the global copyright infringement damages for the film, music, and television industries in 2022 amounted to $65 billion.
Effective Measures Against Copyright Infringement Will Require Additional Investment Analysts believe that the characteristics of copyright-infringing websites include the use of international domain names and hidden information services, public operations, and frequent domain name changes when blocked. These pirate websites often display harmful advertisements, gambling, and casinos.
A typical form of copyright infringement on digital platforms is that after copyright owners broadcast or publish content on platforms such as OTT, terrestrial digital television, and satellite digital television, violators immediately engage in live streaming or re-upload the content on social media, or cut and publish the content.
According to Mr. Pham Hoang Hai, technical measures are being implemented, with the Center for Measurement of Radio and Television Broadcasting and Electronic Information working together with the Information Security Agency (under the Ministry of Information and Communications) and copyright owners to detect copyright infringements, verify and investigate infringing content, and request Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access for Internet users in Vietnam to infringing websites. In other words, users in Vietnam using smartphones and computers will be unable to access infringing websites, while users abroad can still access them. In this case, the managing entity only blocks access within Vietnam’s territory.
The process involves copyright owners submitting applications with supporting documents demonstrating their rights and evidence of infringements. State agencies will review and decide on the block, after which ISPs (Internet service providers) will proceed to block and stop providing DNS services for the domains of pirate websites, as requested by state agencies.
Lawyer Pham Thanh Thuy stated that there are currently various technical measures to combat copyright violations in the digital environment, such as technical measures – creating codes and locks to prevent unauthorized access, such as encrypting content using DRM methods. When some individuals intentionally violate copyright despite the presence of codes, additional measures like fingerprinting or watermarking may be applied. Each subscriber receives a unique identifier, and if that person illegally live streams content from their subscription on the internet, television stations can activate that subscriber’s identifier and thereby identify the copyright infringer.
Additionally, there are legal measures to support copyright owners, including administrative, civil, criminal, and Notice & Takedown measures. However, according to Thuy, the implementation of legal measures faces many challenges. Furthermore, in today’s conditions, applying administrative, civil, and criminal measures is very difficult, and the duration of cases is lengthy, about 2-3 years. A typical example is the Phimmoi case, which lasted 4 years.
The Center for Digital Copyright Protection and many experts believe that to effectively prevent online copyright infringement, there must be coordination between copyright owners, state management agencies, and ISPs; a flexible blocking mechanism must be established to block newly emerging domains after blocking; different technical measures must be applied to block access (DNS, IP, CDN). Moreover, the development of automatic blocking tools should be considered to reduce time and human resources.
“In a total of 15.5 million subscribers who watch pirated content, if only 10% of them switch to legal subscriptions, the companies will have additional funds to reinvest in producing or acquiring the rights to valuable content. This will contribute to the development of the digital content industry in Vietnam,” said Lawyer Pham Thanh Thuy.”
The digital transformation in the television industry is facing unprecedented challenges in terms of security and content copyright protection. This demands the emergence of new solutions to ensure that content is not compromised by copyright infringement risks. On September 26th, under the theme ‘Solving the issue of copyright protection in the music, film, and digital television industry,’ the Vietnam Digital Communications Association (VDCA) collaborated with Thudo Multimedia to organize an event aimed at finding innovative solutions for these challenges. After the seminar, the online news portal dangcongsan.vn also published an article sharing information about this event:
The digital transformation in the television industry is bringing forth challenges like never before in terms of content security and copyright protection, requiring the development of new solutions to safeguard content against various copyright infringement risks.
Mr. Vu Kiem Van, Vice President – General Secretary of Vietnam Digital Communications Association (VDCA) – affirmed that the issue of content copyright protection is currently facing difficulties.
This was stated by Mr. Vu Kiem Van, Deputy Chairman, General Secretary of the Vietnam Digital Communications Association (VDCA) at the seminar ‘Solving the copyright protection puzzle for the music, film, and digital television industry’ organized by the Digital Content Creative Alliance (DCCA) in collaboration with Thudo Multimedia on September 26th in Hanoi.
According to Mr. Van, the issue of protecting content copyright, especially in the current digital transformation context, is facing many challenges. There have been many conferences and seminars discussing this issue, indicating that it is a matter of great concern for creative businesses and content providers.
Recognizing this trend, more than three years ago, VDCA launched the Digital Copyright Center. Many social-professional organizations, content exploitation and copyright protection businesses have also emerged, focusing on movies, music, games, etc., forming an increasingly large force to contribute to the protection of digital copyright. Therefore, the seminar focused on specific areas that are quite unique and have seen the most copyright infringement cases in recent times and are also challenging to handle.
In the context of the booming digital content distribution, the rapid development of Over-The-Top (OTT) television platforms, and online film distributors like Netflix, Hulu, and Hotstar, have led users into a completely new era of entertainment content consumption. The convenience of accessing movies, TV shows, and live music events on devices has transformed how audiences interact with content.
Mr. Pham Hoang Hai, Director of the Digital Content Copyright Center, Department of Broadcasting, Television and Electronic Information, Ministry of Information and Communications shared about the situation of digital content copyright infringement in Vietnam.
Moreover, according to Mr. Pham Hoang Hai, Director of the Digital Content Copyright Center under the Radio and Television Broadcasting and Electronic Information Authority (Ministry of Information and Communications), OTT television service providers in Vietnam and online film distributors have become important factors in the Internet entertainment ecosystem by meeting the demands for unlimited content. Therefore, ensuring the integrity and exclusivity of released content has become an important issue, a puzzle that content owners and distributors increasingly value.
“Efforts have been made by the authorities to stop copyright violations, but it still faces many difficulties,” said Mr. Pham Hoang Hai, Director of the Digital Content Copyright Center, Radio and Television Broadcasting and Electronic Information Authority, Ministry of Information and Communications, at the event.
Although domain blocking measures have been implemented in Vietnam, digital rights management (DRM) solutions such as Widevine, FairPlay, and PlayReady have been deployed to prevent unauthorized access and distribution, comprehensive copyright protection solutions are still lacking, demanding a multi-faceted approach to address existing risks.
In particular, the issue that content providers face with DRM vulnerabilities is the exploitation of packet spoofing to deceive licensing servers and bypass the content licensing verification for unreliable accounts.
Alongside the DRM vulnerabilities, OTT television service providers and online film distributors must deal with a series of other risks that require comprehensive copyright protection solutions. For example, there’s the issue of using screen recording devices for rebroadcasting or exploiting virtual private networks (VPNs) to circumvent geographical restrictions, enabling access to content from one country for illegal distribution in another.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Han shares about the Sigma Active Observer (SAO) solution, which integrates AI in digital copyright protection.
To cope with these diverse threats, in addition to governance and management policies, technology plays a very important role. In light of this reality, Sigma Multi-DRM introduces a breakthrough protection solution – Sigma Active Observer (SAO). This is an innovative solution that goes beyond the limitations of traditional DRM solutions, providing a flexible and proactive defense mechanism, actively detecting and alerting against copyright infringement risks.
For OTT television service providers and online content distributors, embracing Sigma Multi-DRM with integrated SAO creates a comprehensive protection strategy. By applying this dynamic solution, content providers can address crucial issues such as protecting against multifaceted threats, safeguarding exclusive content, enhancing brand credibility, optimizing revenue, and taking an active role in security.
In conclusion, as the digital content distribution environment continues to expand and the issue of digital content copyright infringement becomes increasingly complex, facing diverse threats is a challenge that will persist in the digital environment.
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 President – General Secretary of Vietnam Digital Communications Association (VDCA) – affirmed that the issue of content copyright protection is currently facing difficulties.
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 Digital Content Copyright Center, Department of Broadcasting, Television and Electronic Information, Ministry of Information and Communications shared about the situation of digital content copyright infringement in Vietnam.
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.
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