Vietnam destroys discs in piracy purge
HANOI - Nearly 33,000 pirate music, video and computer discs have been destroyed in Vietnam's southern business capital of Ho Chi Minh City in a purge against piracy, officials said.
The fake goods, which included 14,244 bootleg Microsoft software discs, were crashed by a steamroller on Monday, said Nguyen Van Duy from the city's Department of Market Control.
"Previously, the Department of Culture and Information was in charge of confiscating and destroying those illegal products, but as piracy has become more rampant in Vietnam, we are helping them in their efforts," Duy said.
More than 500,000 pirated and pornographic discs have been confiscated since December 2002 in the city, he said. Most are smuggled in from abroad, particularly Cambodia and China.
Copyright, trademarks and intellectual property rights are extensively violated in Vietnam.
The United States has warned that unless Hanoi takes meaningful measures to crack down on piracy and bring protection measures in line with World Trade Organisation standards it could, as a last resort, impose sanctions.
Agence France Presse - March 11, 2003.
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