On August 25, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture and Sports announced that it had just issued guidelines for organizations and individuals operating in the field of culture and arts in the area to implement regulations on copyright and related rights.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture and Sports requests units such as artists and business owners to proactively review legal bases before organizing programs or exploiting works, performances, audio recordings, video recordings and broadcast programs.
The use of these products must be agreed upon, with permission and payment of copyright fees to copyright owners, collective representative organizations for copyright, related rights or authorized parties as prescribed.
Organizations and individuals are not allowed to use works, performances, audio recordings, video recordings and broadcast programs without permission from the copyright holder or without fulfilling financial obligations. If falling under copyright restrictions or exceptions, the use must still fully meet the conditions prescribed by law.
For karaoke and dance business establishments, the Department requires only using musical works, audio recordings, and video recordings of legal origin. Establishments are not allowed to use software, song stores or storage devices containing infringing content; and must fulfill copyright obligations when exploiting works for business.
In the field of fine arts, photography and exhibitions, units must respect the personal rights of authors, not arbitrarily copy, edit, cut, distort or publish works.
In the digital environment, users are not allowed to arbitrarily record audio, video, post, disseminate, copy or share works without the consent of the copyright owner, except in cases permitted by law.
Units operating electronic information pages, social networks, digital platforms and online information services are also responsible for controlling the legality of exploited content.
For clubs, teams, mass art groups and "singing together" activities, the Department notes that it is necessary to distinguish between community activities and activities with commercial elements.
If the program does not sell tickets, does not charge fees, is not for business purposes or directly or indirectly profits from exploiting works, organizations and individuals shall comply with the regulations on exceptions.
Conversely, if the activity has advertising, commercial sponsorship, ticket sales, fee collection or generates economic benefits, the organizing unit must fully fulfill its obligations regarding copyright and related rights. Attaching the name "community exchange" does not mean that the program is automatically exempt from copyright obligations.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture and Sports also emphasized the responsibility of heads of units, businesses and organizations in controlling the origin of works, program content and exploitation rights.
Organizations and individuals infringing copyright may be required to terminate their actions, apologize, publicly correct, compensate for damages and fulfill other civil obligations.
According to the guidance content, the maximum administrative fine in the field of copyright and related rights is 250 million VND for individuals and 500 million VND for organizations. Violators may also be subject to remedial measures.
If the act is sufficient to constitute the crime of infringing copyright and related rights under Article 225 of the Penal Code, an individual may be sentenced to imprisonment for up to 3 years. Commercial legal entities may be fined up to 3 billion VND or suspended from operation for a period of time.
In the coming time, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture and Sports will coordinate with functional agencies and collective representative organizations to inspect, verify, and handle reflections, recommendations and denunciations related to intellectual property infringement acts.
