Music Copyright: Stop Holding the Wrong One!

Singer Van Mai Huong has received backlash from Lady Gaga's fan community in Vietnam, due to copyright issues when covering the song.

Lady Gaga's fan community complained to singer Van Mai Huong for using songs from the movie "A star is born" to release Vietnamese covers, perform, and re-release on YouTube/Facebook/TikTok platforms.

Building awareness of copyright

Singer Van Mai Huong apologized and affirmed that she used the song legally. But Lady Gaga's fans did not accept the apology and continued to complain to UMG (Universal Music Group). The crux of the conflict is that Lady Gaga's fans believe that Van Mai Huong has "abused" this cover, performed everywhere and made money for herself, to the point that many people even thought this was Van Mai Huong's "original" song. Lady Gaga's fans are upset because Van Mai Huong performed "Always remember us this way" everywhere while Lady Gaga herself has not performed her own song.

Van Mai Huong confirmed that her team had asked permission from the song's management agency before covering it. She also confirmed that she has always been a fan of Lady Gaga and said that it was a mistake not to include Lady Gaga's name in the credit section of the cover clip. This mistake was made by the team in charge of the fanpage and was fixed immediately afterwards.

Although things have calmed down, the phenomenon of "mistakes" like Van Mai Huong is not rare. This stems from the cover trend that has flourished in Vietnamese showbiz when Chinese, European, American, French songs... with Vietnamese lyrics flooded the market because they were easy to please the audience. If in the past, "mistakes" were immediately deleted from YouTube, now it is more difficult because they are sung live.

Musician Huy Tuan affirmed: "If the copyright issue is not resolved, Vietnamese music will remain in a vicious circle. Up to now, basically, the mistakes of music copyright infringement units still revolve around copyright and related rights."

Singer Van Mai Huong received backlash from Lady Gaga's fan community in Vietnam, due to copyright issues.

Music copyright story in the technology era

At the 2024 year-end summary ceremony, held in mid-January, organized by the Southern Branch of the Vietnam Center for Music Copyright Protection (VCPMC), Meritorious Artist Dinh Trung Can - General Director of VCPMC, shared: Many shows/performance stages have not paid royalties for a long time. Among them, we can mention the show "Lululola" in Da Lat (Lam Dong), the shows of "May Lang Thang" in places such as Lam Dong, Nghe An, Da Nang, Hanoi , Ho Chi Minh City. Recently, some Korean music shows have not paid royalties and VCPMC has filed lawsuits in court, such as the program "2024 Baekhyun Asia Tour (Lonsdaleite) in Ho Chi Minh" (taking place on September 28, 2024) organized by IME Music Company Limited. The program "2024-25 2NE1 Asia Tour (Welcome back) in Ho Chi Minh" (taking place on February 15 and 16, 2025 at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center), also organized by IME Company, has not yet agreed on copyright payment.

"VCPMC has informed and worked with the Korean copyright organization KOMCA to coordinate in preventing and handling infringements, requiring the organizers to pay royalties for permission to use, and at the same time reporting the violations of these units to state agencies, requesting inspection and handling of violations" - Meritorious Artist Dinh Trung Can said.

Insider's voice

VCPMC's statistics in 2024 show that the center has collected over 393 billion VND in royalties, of which 78% of this amount came from digital platforms. Mr. Dinh Trung Can said that in the past, the number of troubles that VCPMC had to resolve was also proportional to the revenue brought in.

Many musicians have shared that they have fallen into troublesome situations when their works - their brainchild - were violated and not respected. As in the case of musician Bao Chan, when he realized that signing a contract authorizing a private entity was incorrect, he quickly asked the private company to terminate this authorization. However, the case was not resolved satisfactorily and had to be handled in court. The first instance judgment in 2023 of the court accepted musician Bao Chan's request, but the private entity continued to appeal, causing the case to drag on.

Copyright experts recommend that in order to ensure the enforcement of copyright, in addition to the legal system, creators - copyright and related rights owners - also need to clearly understand their legal rights and carefully choose competent entities to protect their own assets.

To enhance the effectiveness of copyright and related rights protection in the music sector in Vietnam, Mr. Dinh Trung Can emphasized the need to strengthen the dissemination and popularization of the provisions of the Intellectual Property Law and its guiding documents, thereby raising awareness and compliance with the law on copyright and related rights. In particular, it is necessary to strengthen inspection, examination, supervision and strict handling of acts of copyright and related rights infringement.

According to experts, to enter the development cycle of world music, not only quality products but also respect for copyright are the criteria for evaluation. Music copyright is an ecosystem that needs to be developed healthily to stimulate product demand.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/ban-quyen-am-nhac-hay-thoi-cam-nham-196250217205240289.htm