Software copyright becomes bigger issue in Viet Nam
Vu Manh Chu, PhD, director of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's Copyright Office, spoke to the newspaper Tin Tuc (News) about the importance of enforcing software copyrights
What measures has COV taken to reduce software copyright infringement?
The key issue is to stop copyright infringements. This involves raising awareness of both producers and consumers.
In recent years, COV has co-operated with foreign organisations, in the form of workshops on intellectual property rights. We, together with the Business Software Alliance and the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce in Viet Nam, have organised meetings to avoid copyright infringements in the future.
We also expect to hold more workshops in the near future, with the participation of other Southeast Asian countries to improve compliance with international copyright law.
Currently, COV is working with three of Viet Nam's governmental agencies and international software groups, such as Microsoft, to bolster the awareness of the importance of copyright issues.
We have already launched a certificate-granting programme for entrepreneurs who choose to obey copyright laws, while at the same time, introducing Vietnamese products to key markets.
What do you think about the risks production companies take when they release unlicensed software to foreign markets without permission?
There are two scenarios involved here, the first is that foreign entrepreneurs who use workers and equipment from Viet Nam to manufacture and export their products abroad, the second is that domestic producers export their products.
In both cases there are repercussions for Viet Nam and for their own countries. Domestic enterprises are likely to be banned from exporting their products where they have made infringements. The same is true for Vietnamese enterprises who try to do the same.
For example, there is a law in the US that has already approved a ban on companies who have exported unlicensed software to Washington and Louisiana. According to this law, not only must the unlicensed software be seized, but the violators must make financial compunctions.
Does CVO have any programme to support enterprises to use copyrighted software?
We are co-orporating with certain IT companies. such as Business Software Alliance, Lac Viet Computing Joint Stock Company, Bkis, Microsoft, Autodesk to consult enterprises to use the software properly and effectively.
We are also working on long-term projects to take care of this issue in future years. — VNS