On May 16, the Ministry of Public Security said that the Investigation Police Agency of the Ministry of Public Security has issued decisions to prosecute 5 criminal cases for the crime of "infringement of copyright and related rights", as stipulated in Article 225 of the Penal Code.
Among them, the most prominent case occurred at Bihaco Trading and Media Services Joint Stock Company (BH Media Company), prosecuting defendant Nguyen Hai Binh, General Director of BH Media Company.
Currently, the Department of Police for Investigation of Corruption, Economic Crimes, and Smuggling (C03, Ministry of Public Security) is continuing to expand the investigation, clarifying the criminal acts of the defendants as well as related violations for handling according to legal regulations, and at the same time serving the work of recovering assets.
Before being prosecuted for copyright infringement, Mr. Nguyen Hai Binh and BH Media had repeatedly caused controversy related to music copyright issues on digital platforms.
In particular, this company was once named in the "national anthem silence" incident in the match between the Vietnamese and Lao teams at the AFF Cup on the evening of December 6, 2021.
Accordingly, before the Vietnam vs. Laos match at AFF Cup 2020, many viewers on YouTube were surprised to not hear the Vietnamese National Anthem during the flag salute ceremony. Instead, the screen displayed a message to turn off the sound for music copyright reasons.
The reason is said to stem from concerns about copyright issues on YouTube. Next Media - the unit owning the copyright to broadcast the matches of the Vietnamese team - has proactively turned off the "National Anthem" part to avoid the risk of copyright infringement or affecting revenue on the digital platform.
After the incident, many viewers believe that BH Media was a unit that was once involved in a copyright infringement scandal for "Tien Quan Ca", causing the "National Anthem" part to be turned off. However, BH Media denied this and affirmed that in the Vietnam - Laos match, no party sent a copyright request for "Tien Quan Ca". According to the business, turning off the sound was an active decision from Next Media to prevent risks related to copyright on YouTube.
However, the case still becomes one of the major controversies related to music copyright and the right to use the recordings of the "National Anthem" on digital platforms in Vietnam.
In addition, BH Media was once involved in a copyright dispute with musician Giang Son. In 2021, Giang Son said he was warned by YouTube about copyright issues with the song "Noon Dream" composed by himself.
After being born in 2007, two-stringed artist Duong Thuy Anh once asked for a remix of "Night Dream" to perform and make a CD, released by Ho Guom Video Audio. This CD was later acquired by BH Media and released on digital platforms.
After the incident, BH Media denied "attacking copyright". According to BH Media, YouTube uses an AI system that automatically scans audio recordings on the platform. When detecting content with sounds similar to existing recordings, the system will automatically send copyright warnings.
But this reason was not accepted by musician Giang Son.
