~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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Vietnam busts pirate CD supplier

HANOI - Local authorities in Vietnam's southern commercial capital of Ho Chi Minh City have busted a huge pirate disc supplier, seizing more than 100,000 pirate CDs, video and digital video discs. The city's culture inspectors seized the haul on Saturday after a raid on a shop in Tran Hung Dao street, chief inspector Do Khanh Quang said.

More than 700,000 pirated music and movie CDs, VCDs and DVDs have been confiscated from more than 200 shops in the southern hub in the first nine months of this year, according to official figures.

"As other countries and especially the US have increasingly raised their concerns over the copyright violations in Vietnam, we want to show them that we are fighting and will fight without mercy against that crime," Mr Khanh said. "The circulation of pirated discs also has a bad impact on young people when they can easily access to products with porn or violent contents," he added.

In July, police in Hanoi busted the biggest pirate CD and videotape network in the north, confiscating more than 500,000 pirated videotapes, CDs, VCDs, DVDs and CD-ROMs after a raid on four shops in Hanoi. The improvement of Vietnam's protection of intellectual property rights is essential for the country's bid to enter WTO.

But piracy is a flourishing industry in Vietnam with bootleg discs widely available for sale. Most are smuggled in from abroad, particularly Cambodia and China, and are often sold by shops who have bribed local police to turn a blind eye. Despite a copyright safeguard introduced in 1999 which requires music and video-discs to carry an official stamp, those without stamps are still available at popular music stores in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Software piracy is also rife in Vietnam, with CD-ROMs and other personal computer software widely available for around 10,000 dong (66c). In October, Vietnam will host two different ASEAN meetings in Hanoi looking at intellectual property rights.

Agence France Presse - September 29, 2003


Authorities seize 100,000 pirated recordings in Vietnam

HANOI - Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City seized about 100,000 pirated compact discs, DVDs and video CDs from a shop as part of a crackdown on widespread bootlegging, an official said Monday.

Most of the recordings confiscated by police and cultural inspectors during Saturday's raid were music and movies, both Vietnamese and foreign, the official of the city's Department of Culture and Information said on condition of anonymity. Cultural inspectors will work with police to identify how many recordings contain violent or inappropriate content, he said. No arrests were made, but an investigation is continuing, the official said.

Vietnam ranks as one of the worst countries in the world regarding piracy. Counterfeit CDs are widely available for about 50 cents each, while DVDs can be bought for about US$1. Under a trade agreement with the United States ratified in 2001, Vietnam is required to protect intellectual property rights in return for low tariffs on its exports to the United States.

The Associated Press - September 29, 2003