Exploiting digital music 'resources'

Mr. Nguyen Quang Dong, Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Media Development, said that according to statistics, about 70 million Vietnamese people use the internet, of which the number of people using the entertainment network (including music) is among the largest in the Asia-Pacific region.

“We have a huge online music market,” said Mr. Nguyen Quang Dong. This is even more evident in another statistic showing that the trend of music consumption in Vietnam as well as in the world has increased by more than 20% on the internet environment.

Copyright "pie"

Realizing the great potential of the online music market in Vietnam, many units have quickly joined the game of exploiting music copyright on this platform, including "old soldiers" (units operating for many years in the field of music copyright protection) such as the Vietnam Center for Music Copyright Protection (VCPMC) and "new soldiers" such as MCM Online, a unit using technology to protect music copyright on the internet, with musician Le Minh Son as general director, just launched. The emergence of units protecting copyright using technology is expected to help create a healthy digital content ecosystem. Because in fact, the world 's major digital music sites/stores have long applied technology in copyright protection.

Singer Phuong Vy and many other singers said: "We don't know where to go when the exploitation units trample each other in music business activities on YouTube."

NSCC

“Good copyright management will gradually form a culture of using copyrighted music, at which point authors will receive respect, thereby encouraging them. My aspiration is that musicians must make a living from their works, meaning that the user must pay royalties to the musician. This seems obvious, but in fact, it is something that many musicians like me have long wanted,” said musician Le Minh Son. Mr. Nguyen Quang Dong also said: “Spiritual value must go hand in hand with economic value.” “The source of profit from copyright protection is sustainable, creating a driving force for the development of the online entertainment market. That is what countries with entertainment industries have done,” said Mr. Dong.

Need transparency and honesty

In fact, although copyright protection on digital platforms is not new to the world, it is still a field that is unfamiliar to Vietnam. Recently, there have been issues surrounding copyright protection on digital platforms. Many singers and musicians expressed their anger when they were warned about copyright and were beaten indiscriminately on YouTube. In addition to the case of musician Giang Son being sued for copyright over his own work, Giac Mo Noon (poem by Nguyen Vinh Tien), when he created a YouTube channel and shared this song on the channel, there were also singers who were beaten and had their own YouTube channels shut down.

"The revenue from copyright protection is sustainable, creating a driving force for the development of the online entertainment market. That is what countries with entertainment industries have done."

Mr. Nguyen Quang Dong , Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Media Development

Musician Hoai An said: “As long as we have a correct understanding of intellectual property (IP) and are honest, the copyright situation will not have as many noisy incidents as recently. Regarding IP, musicians, singers, producers, digital content companies... should understand the correct terminology, understand the details of the terms, and have a connection with a consulting unit specializing in IP law. And above all, we need to be transparent and honest with IP assets.”

According to him, besides the units that work seriously, there are units that "grab" rights that they do not have, or deliberately find ways to "dodge" them by signing contracts with many clauses that "deceive" the artists (most artists work mainly on trust, sometimes they do not even read these contracts). Not only that, he said there are cases where they take existing recordings, separate the singer's voice, add more backing vocals, add instruments, to create a new master and then claim that it is 100% their own rights (this is not allowed, unless there is consent from the owner of the recording and those with related rights). "It is the "quick-fix" mentality of some digital content copyright business units, rushing to make the most and fastest profit, taking advantage of the gullibility and lack of understanding of intellectual property law of artists, that has created many copyright disputes in recent times," musician Hoai An was indignant.

From another perspective, musician Nguyen Van Chung bitterly said: “Whether the music environment in the online world is healthy or not, perhaps depends on the mindset of the business people. Not to mention some companies “rob” the copyright of folk songs, reformed opera, cheo, ho... and then go to copyright other users. Some companies take advantage of the copyright protection period (50 years after the author's death, the work is used as common property), and take the copyright of these works to exploit business; but YouTube does not need to know or distinguish each case, only whoever holds the copyright, registers first, it automatically warns and punishes those who broadcast later”.

Mr. Nguyen Van Chung believes that the online music environment is now a playground for those who are tech-savvy, who understand the steps and tricks to make business work, not for musicians anymore. “It seems that the laws governing the music industry are not yet in line with the speed of market and technology development, so there will still be many lawsuits. I now find it too troublesome after many disputes, so every time I suffer a loss from copyright, I consider it a lesson learned,” the musician said.

According to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Han, representative of the unit participating in technology development of MCM Online, Vietnam can refer to the international music industry. Mr. Han gives an example of a music channel that can be considered a stage, the authorization can be diverse, artists can authorize different units and this is regulated in detail as well as the authorization does not violate each other. Meanwhile, Mr. Nguyen Quang Dong admits that Vietnam has many loopholes in copyright protection, but copyright protection is the piece for the development of the digital economy. "This is a big business field so it needs to be promoted," Mr. Dong expressed.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/khai-thac-tai-nguyen-nhac-so-1851434302.htm