Businesses face difficulties due to widespread copyright infringement

The situation of music, film, and television copyright infringement on digital platforms is rampant, increasingly complex, and sophisticated. This raises the demand for the development of an automated system to block access to pirate websites and the tightening of legal mechanisms for copyright protection.

At a symposium on September 26th, titled “Solving the Copyright Protection Challenge for the Digital Music-Film-Television Industry,” organized by Thủ Đô Multimedia, several leading newspapers, including the renowned Tiền Phong newspaper, reported:

Proliferation of Infringement

At the symposium on solving the copyright protection challenge for the digital music, film, and television industry, organized by the Vietnam Digital Content Creative Alliance (DCCA) on September 26th, numerous experts, lawyers, and representatives of digital content providers shared insights into the copyright infringement issues, especially in the music, film, and television sectors, proposing preventive measures and strategies to combat copyright infringement.

Regarding the protection of unique content copyright in the digital era, Mr. Vũ Kiêm Văn, Deputy Chairman and Secretary-General of the Vietnam Digital Communications Association, affirmed that safeguarding copyright, especially in the context of the digital age, presents significant challenges. To elaborate further on this statement, Mr. Phạm Hoàng Hải, Director of the Copyright Content Center at the Department of Radio, Television, and Electronic Information under the Ministry of Information and Communications, emphasized that the issue of copyright infringement in Vietnam is very complex. Numerous pirate websites frequently and unlawfully broadcast football matches and movies.

According to data from SimilarWeb, there are about 70 pirate football websites with more than 1.5 billion views in 2022 and 2023. Additionally, more than 200 pirate movie websites attract about 120 million views per month, with the top 10 websites receiving more than 66 million views each month. Within one year from August 2022, PTTH&TTĐT, in collaboration with the Department of Information Security and copyright holders, has managed to block nearly 1,000 pirate football websites such as coichua.net, tammao.tv, and xoilac.live.

Mr. Phạm Hoàng Hải highlighted the common characteristics of many copyright-infringing websites, which involve using international domain names and frequently changing domain names when blocked. The primary method of copyright infringement on these pirate websites is live streaming or content sharing on social media platforms. These contents are typically extracted from legitimate platforms such as OTT, terrestrial digital television, and satellite digital television. In addition to reposting copyrighted content, pirate websites often display harmful advertisements, gambling, and betting.

Lawyer Phạm Thanh Thuỷ, responsible for copyright infringement prevention for a channel broadcasting the English Premier League, pointed out that Vietnam has 15.5 million people regularly accessing pirate websites, ranking Vietnam among the top three regions for copyright infringement. English Premier League matches with copyrights are widely available on the internet. If 10% of the 15.5 million pirate views convert to legitimate subscriptions, the revenue generated would be substantial. With this income, Vietnam could reinvest in higher-value products, acquire better sports programs and films, thus contributing to the development of the digital content creative industry in Vietnam, said Ms. Phạm Thanh Thủy.

Automatic Blocking Mechanisms

Regarding the information about copyright infringement damages, Mr. Nguyễn Ngọc Hân, CEO of Thủ Đô Multimedia, stated that 80% of copyright violations occur on digital platforms, resulting in a loss of $348 million in 2022, equivalent to 7 trillion Vietnamese dong. Globally, copyright infringement caused $65 billion in damages to the music, film, and television industry in 2022.

In addition to technical solutions such as access blocking and proactive access blocking systems, experts and representatives emphasized the role of legal measures, especially in supporting copyright holders. Ms. Phạm Thanh Thủy identified some challenges. Applying administrative, civil, and criminal measures is difficult and time-consuming. “The lawsuit against phimmoi.net has been going on for four years without a resolution,” Ms. Phạm Thanh Thủy stated.

Mr. Phạm Hoàng Hải believes that after a prolonged period of implementing access blocking measures against pirate websites, positive results have been achieved. Specifically, the number of copyright infringement links has decreased by 7%, and access to blocked websites has decreased by up to 98%. Moreover, blocking access to pirate websites has gradually changed the internet usage habits of Vietnamese citizens. As a result, 23% of Vietnamese internet users responded that they would not or would reduce their access to pirate websites due to the impact of access blocking.

However, the access blocking measures still have some shortcomings. “We need to establish coordination between copyright holders, state management agencies, and ISPs. Establishing flexible access blocking mechanisms, tracking and blocking new domain names that emerge after the initial block, and applying various appropriate technical measures to block access,” suggested Mr. Phạm Hoàng Hải.

In line with Mr. Phạm Hoàng Hải’s perspective, Ms. Phạm Thanh Thủy proposed that Vietnam should adopt a proactive blocking model like that in the UK. In this model, when pirate websites change their domain names or IP addresses after the first block, ISPs would proactively block the new domain names and IP addresses upon receiving notifications from copyright holders or relevant government agencies, without the need for re-administrative procedures.

Recognizing the necessity of an automatic blocking system, Mr. Nguyễn Ngọc Hân suggested using AI technology to enhance monitoring of all aspects of content distribution and online broadcasting activities. “The use of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) can help rapidly and accurately detect and review all data exchange activities during content distribution on the internet,” Mr. Nguyễn Ngọc Hân noted.

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