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.
The issue of protecting intellectual property rights, especially in the current digital transformation context, is facing many challenges. Meanwhile, dealing with violations is also encountering some limitations, and preventive measures have not been standardized.
On September 26, 2023, in Hanoi, the Digital Content Creation Alliance (DCCA) of Vietnam collaborated with Capital Multimedia to organize a seminar with the theme “Resolving the Issue of Protecting Intellectual Property Rights for the Music, Film, and Digital Television Industries.” Following the seminar, the news portal sohuutritue.net also published an article:
On September 26, 2023, in Hanoi, the Digital Content Creation Alliance of Vietnam (DCCA) collaborated with Capital Multimedia to organize a seminar titled “Solving the Copyright Protection Puzzle for the Music, Film, and Digital Television Industries.”
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.
The seminar shared information about the current situation of copyright violations in digital content in general, as well as in the music, film, and digital television industries in particular. It also discussed the difficulties in implementing preventive measures and preventing copyright infringements. In addition, Capital Multimedia shared the Sigma Multi-DRM solution integrated with artificial intelligence (AI) in copyright protection, commercially known as Sigma Active Observer (SAO), which helps content owners and online content distribution platforms protect copyrights for their content on the Internet.
Speaking at the seminar, Mr. Pham Hoang Hai, Director of the Copyright Center for Digital Content at the Department of Radio, Television, and Electronic Information, Ministry of Information and Communications, pointed out that copyright violations have become increasingly complex. There are numerous pirate websites that violate copyrights, especially for major events such as the English Premier League, UEFA Champions League, which received up to 1.5 billion views in 2022-2023.
Furthermore, more than 200 pirate websites attract around 120 million views per month. Notably, some pirate websites have recently started stealing Japanese comic content, and Japan has taken strong actions against such violations.
Mr. Hai also discussed the challenges, stating, “The infringing domain names host servers abroad, and the owners advertise gambling on these websites. Typical infringement methods include re-broadcasting content from OTT platforms, terrestrial digital television, and satellite digital television. Violators often take the content and then livestream it on social media and pirate websites.”
In response to this situation, the Department of Radio, Television, and Electronic Information has cooperated with the Information Security Department and copyright agencies to detect, verify, and collaborate with relevant entities to block access to infringing websites, resulting in nearly 1000 websites being blocked.
However, Mr. Hai also pointed out existing drawbacks, such as the lack of consistency in blocking measures among Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and varying timeframes for blocking, with some ISPs blocking immediately and others doing so after three days or more. Additionally, there is a need for flexibility in dealing with new domain names, as infringing parties often change domain names quickly and announce new ones in closed online groups such as Telegram, Facebook, and Zalo.
Ms. Pham Thanh Thuy, representing K+, shared the difficulties her unit has faced in the struggle against Xoi Lac TV over time – Photo: QUYEN PHAM
Meanwhile, Lawyer Pham Thanh Thuy, in charge of Copyright Enforcement for K+, highlighted the challenges that OTT television providers and online content distributors face. According to her, the key issue is digital rights management (DRM) vulnerabilities, particularly the exploitation of packet spoofing to deceive License Servers and bypass authorization checks to access content for untrusted accounts.
She also mentioned problems like using screen recording devices for rebroadcasting and exploiting Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to evade geographical restrictions, allowing access to content from one country and illicitly distributing it in another.
In summary, despite numerous solutions and collaborative efforts to protect copyrights, the effectiveness remains limited in curbing and addressing copyright infringements in the fields of film, music, and digital television. During the discussions, participants, speakers, and guests continued to share their experiences in dealing with this issue. Three main solution groups emerged: technical solutions and continuously evolving technologies for content encryption and infringement tracking, legal measures to support copyright holders, including administrative, civil, and criminal actions, and the third group, which is a newer trend successfully applied in many advanced countries, involves blocking access and “Knock and Talk” (identifying and confronting the individuals responsible for violations directly to cease infringements).
The seminar “Solving the Copyright Protection Puzzle for the Music, Film, and Digital Television Industry,” organized by the Vietnam Digital Content Creativity Alliance (DCCA) in coordination with Capital Multimedia on September 26, 2023, set the stage for discussions on the challenges in applying preventive measures and combating copyright infringement. The seminar also shared some solutions to help content owners and online content distribution platforms effectively protect the intellectual property rights of their content products on the Internet. This emphasizes the importance of dealing with copyright infringement in the music, film, and digital television industry in the context of the increasingly digitized world.
Following the seminar, laodongthudo.vn also shared:
The development of the digital content distribution environment is directly related to copyright infringement issues. Currently, OTT television service providers like TV360, FPT Play, and online film distributors like Netflix, Hulu, and Hotstar have become important players in the Internet entertainment ecosystem by meeting the demand for unlimited content. The convenience of accessing movies, TV shows, and live music events on various devices has transformed how audiences interact with content.
However, this trend is also associated with copyright infringement problems.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Han, CEO of Thudo Multimedia
This is evidenced by the statistics provided by Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Han, the CEO of Capital Multimedia Company, which show that in Vietnam, up to 80% of copyright violations occur on digital platforms, resulting in a loss of $348 million in 2022, equivalent to approximately 7 trillion Vietnamese dong. The global losses in the music, film, and television industries in 2022 amounted to $65 billion.
According to Mr. Han, copyright infringement in Vietnam has become increasingly sophisticated. In the past, copyright infringement was as simple as copying cards for set-top boxes, but now, the violations have become more intricate and complex. They include violations on set-top boxes, violations over network infrastructure within a country, and even violations that cross national borders, involving the use of VPNs and spanning multiple platforms (mobile, set-top boxes, web) or using online re-streaming.
Mr. Pham Hoang Hai, Director of the Center for Digital Content Copyright in Vietnam (Department of Broadcasting, Television, and Electronic Information – Ministry of Information and Communications), further illustrated this with SimilarWeb data. Currently, in Vietnam, numerous pirate websites have emerged, including 70 football piracy websites, with the top 5 groups attracting over 1.5 billion views in the 2022/2023 season and 7.7 million unique users in 2022 and 2023. There are also 200 pirate movie websites drawing around 120 million views per month, with the top 10 receiving more than 66 million views each month.
Mr. Hai pointed out that these pirate websites typically use international domains and conceal their information, engage in public activities, frequently change domains when blocked, run harmful and betting advertisements, and showcase various types of content from sports to movies. A common infringement method is to live stream content on social media or edit and broadcast content on different platforms immediately after the copyright owner releases or publishes it on platforms such as OTT, terrestrial digital television, and satellite television.
To protect digital content from various copyright infringement risks, copyright has become increasingly important due to global distribution.
Ensuring the integrity and exclusivity of released content has become a significant concern for content owners and distributors. 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.
According to statistics, from August 2022 to August 2023, the Department of Broadcasting, Television, and Electronic Information collaborated with the Information Security Department and copyright holders to block 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 was published on the banquyen.gov.vn website.
Mr. Pham Hoang Hai, Director of the Center for Digital Content Copyright in Vietnam, stated that the blocking activities have changed browsing habits. In fact, there has been a 7% reduction in the number of copyright infringement links and a 98% decrease in access to blocked websites (according to statistics from the Premier League and SimilarWeb). According to a survey by CAP, 23% of Vietnamese internet users responded that they would not access or access pirate websites less due to the impact of blocking access.
However, current copyright protection solutions are still insufficient, and a multidimensional approach is needed to address existing risks. In particular, content providers face challenges related to DRM vulnerabilities, such as the abuse of packet forgery to deceive license servers and bypass authorization for content access by untrusted accounts.
In addition to DRM vulnerabilities, OTT television providers and online publishers must confront a range of other risks that demand comprehensive copyright protection solutions. These include screen capture device usage for replaying content or exploiting virtual private networks (VPNs) to evade geographical restrictions, allowing access to content from one country to be unlawfully distributed in another.
Therefore, the solution proposed by the Vietnam Digital Content Copyright Center in the near future is to establish a coordination mechanism among copyright owners, state management agencies, and ISPs. This will involve flexible blocking mechanisms to block newly created domains after they are blocked, apply various technical measures to restrict access (DNS, IP, CDN), and develop automatic blocking tools to minimize time and resource expenditure.
To counter the threats in copyright protection, Capital Multimedia has developed the Sigma Multi-DRM solution, which includes three layers of protection verified by Cartesian and uses artificial intelligence (AI) to address complex copyright infringement issues.
Sigma Multi-DRM introduces a breakthrough protection method – Sigma Active Observer (SAO). This solution goes beyond the limitations of traditional DRM solutions, providing a flexible and proactive defense mechanism. SAO actively detects and reports copyright infringement risks. At the core of Sigma Multi-DRM is SAO, a powerful software toolkit that redefines content security. SAO is not just a security layer of Sigma Multi-DRM; it also monitors all aspects of content distribution and online streaming. Using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, SAO goes further in detecting and reviewing all data exchange activities during content distribution on the Internet.
SAO is a comprehensive protection solution with features such as detecting multidimensional threats, identifying and eliminating VPNs, resisting packet forgery, analyzing user behavior, and providing real-time information.
By using Sigma Multi-DRM integrated with SAO, OTT television service providers and online film and music distributors can protect their exclusive content, enhance brand credibility, optimize revenue, and take a proactive approach to security.
In conclusion, the seminar shed light on the critical issue of copyright protection in the digital age and introduced innovative solutions like Sigma Multi-DRM with SAO to address the challenges faced by the music, film, and digital television industry in protecting their intellectual property in a rapidly evolving online landscape.
Copyright infringement in the field of OTT (Over-The-Top) has become a serious and complex issue in today’s digital age. OTT is an online television and media distribution model where music, movies, and television programs are transmitted over the Internet and do not require traditional broadcasting infrastructure. On September 26, 2023, in Hanoi, the Digital Content Creation Alliance Vietnam (DCCA) in collaboration with Thủ Đô Multimedia organized a seminar titled “Solving the Copyright Protection Issue for the Music, Film, and Digital Television Industry.”
According to statistics from the Department of Radio, Television, and Electronic Information (Ministry of Information and Communications), from August 2022 to August 2023, nearly 1,000 illegal football websites like xoilac.1tiengruoi.link, xoivo4.com, coichua.net, etc., were blocked from access.
These figures were shared by Mr. Phạm Hoàng Hải, Director of the Digital Content Copyright Center at the Department of Radio, Television, and Electronic Information, Ministry of Information and Communications, during the seminar “Solving the Copyright Protection Issue for the Music, Film, and Digital Television Industry.”
Copyright infringement remains widespread on the internet. Organized by the Digital Content Creation Alliance Vietnam, the Vietnam Digital Media Association, and Thủ Đô Multimedia, the seminar held on September 26 in Hanoi focused on unique areas such as music, film, and digital television. These areas have seen a high number of copyright violations in recent times and have been challenging to address.
Mr. Vũ Kiêm Văn, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the Vietnam Digital Media Association, stated during the opening speech that the issue of protecting content copyrights in the digital transformation era faces numerous challenges.
According to Nguyễn Ngọc Hân, CEO of Thủ Đô Multimedia, alongside the convenience for consumers in accessing entertainment content, the digital transformation revolution also brings unprecedented challenges in terms of content security and copyright protection. This requires the development of new solutions to safeguard content from various copyright infringement risks.
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.
Pham Hoang Hai, Director of the Digital Content Copyright Center, highlighted that copyright infringement in Vietnam is complex and involves numerous websites (pirate websites) that broadcast football matches and movies. According to SimilarWeb, there are approximately 70 pirate football websites with over 1.5 billion views in 2022 and 2023. Additionally, over 200 pirate movie websites attract around 120 million views per month, with the top 10 receiving more than 66 million views each month.
Recently, some pirate websites have shifted to the theft of Japanese Anime comics. Copyright infringement related to Anime comics has faced strong reactions from Japanese copyright holders regarding violations in Vietnam.
The common characteristics of many copyright-infringing websites are the use of international domains and obscured information services. They operate publicly, frequently change domains when blocked, and often include harmful advertisements, gambling, and other illegal content.
A typical method of copyright infringement is that, after content owners broadcast or publish their content on platforms like OTT, terrestrial digital television, or satellite digital television, infringing parties will engage in violations by live-streaming the content on social media or by cutting and publishing the content.
Ms. Pham Thanh Thuy, representing K+, shared the difficulties her unit has faced in the struggle against Xoi Lac TV over time – Photo: QUYEN PHAM
According to Pham Thanh Thuy, responsible for Copyright Infringement Prevention at K+, a digital television service, handling copyright infringement cases through administrative measures typically takes about 2-3 years and can extend to 4 years, as exemplified by the Phim Moi case.
In the context of the rapid development of OTT platforms, a representative from K+ revealed that Vietnam ranks third in the region for copyright infringement rates, with 15.5 million people regularly accessing pirate websites. Copyright infringement on digital platforms is now the predominant form of violation.
Content owners hope that effective copyright protection can lead to at least 10% of the 15.5 million viewers of pirate content transitioning to legal subscriptions, which would provide additional revenue for investments in higher-value content, sports programs, and better-quality films. This, in turn, would contribute to the development of the digital content creation industry in Vietnam.
Proposed proactive blocking model for copyright-violating websites
According to the assessment of a representative from the Department of Radio, Television, and Electronic Information, the application of technical measures, specifically blocking access to copyright-violating websites, has had some positive effects in changing user habits. CAP’s survey shows that 23% of internet users in Vietnam reported that they would not access or would reduce their access to pirate websites due to these blocking measures.
However, the blocking measures have some drawbacks, such as inconsistency between Internet Service Providers (ISPs) regarding the methods and timeframes for blocking. Some ISPs block access immediately, while others delay blocking for up to three days or longer. Furthermore, these measures do not effectively address newly emerging domains.
The Department of Radio, Television, and Electronic Information suggests several solutions for effective copyright infringement prevention on the internet, including establishing cooperation between copyright holders, government authorities, and ISPs; creating flexible blocking mechanisms that can adapt to new domains; and applying various appropriate technical measures (DNS, IP, CDN) for blocking access. In addition, they propose developing automatic blocking tools to minimize the time and manpower required for blocking.
Analyzing the difficulties in applying legal measures, including administrative, civil, and criminal measures, to combat copyright infringement in the digital environment, Phạm Thanh Thủy emphasizes that many countries are adopting new trends, such as proactive blocking and “Knock & Talk.”
The person in charge of Copyright Infringement Prevention at K+ added that, according to Media Partners Asia, the situation regarding infringement has improved in countries with effective blocking measures, including Vietnam. AVIA’s survey shows that the majority of viewers no longer watch pirate websites and have transitioned to legal services as pirate websites are blocked.
Phạm Thanh Thủy also suggests that Vietnam should adopt a proactive blocking model similar to the one in the UK. In this model, if pirate websites change domains or IP addresses after the first block, ISPs will proactively block these new domains or IP addresses upon receiving notifications from copyright owners or relevant government authorities without the need for further administrative procedures.
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