The impetus that helps the Vietnamese gaming industry break through.

VHO - In the context of cultural industries and the creative economy being identified as strong growth drivers for the Vietnamese economy, gaming has emerged as a field with great potential but also vulnerable to copyright infringement.

Enforcing copyright protection helps the gaming industry increase its contribution to the development of the cultural industry and the creative economy . Photo: AUDITION - VTC

From illegal copying and piracy to in-game cheating, these challenges not only lead to revenue losses but also hinder efforts to build a professional and sustainable gaming industry. Therefore, copyright protection has become a crucial requirement.

The rate of violations is alarming.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed Decision No. 2486/QD-TTg approving the Strategy for the Development of Cultural Industries until 2030, with a vision to 2045. This strategy identifies software and entertainment games as one of the key cultural industries requiring priority investment.

According to Deputy Director of the Copyright Department (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) Le Minh Tuan, the gaming industry worldwide and in Vietnam is currently experiencing strong growth. Games are not only a form of entertainment but are becoming an important creative economic sector, contributing to digital economic growth, technological innovation, and creating jobs for millions of young workers.

In South Korea, games are considered one of the key pillars of the cultural industry. According to Mr. Lee Yong-Eil, Chief Representative of the Korea Copyright Protection Agency (KCOPA) in Vietnam, the country's game market has expanded significantly, with revenue more than doubling between 2014 and 2023. Currently, South Korea holds approximately 7.8% of the global game market share and ranks fourth in the world.

However, despite their potential and impressive growth figures, both Vietnam and South Korea face challenges related to game piracy. Common violations include distributing cracked or modified versions of games; infringement on livestreaming and short video platforms; using hacks/cheats and bypassing security measures; operating illegal servers; and releasing games without permission.

Lee YongEil argues that game copyright infringement has serious consequences. Besides significant economic losses, repeated game copyright infringement negatively impacts the perception of gamers in society.

Not only do businesses suffer losses, but players themselves also face many risks. Using cracked or hacked games easily leads to the unauthorized collection of personal information and the infection of users' devices with malware.

Furthermore, game copyright infringement distorts the competitive environment; creative value is disregarded, gradually fostering unhealthy digital consumption habits within the community. Beyond that, prolonged copyright infringement damages Vietnam's standing in the eyes of international partners, limiting its ability to participate deeply in the global game production and distribution network.

According to Nguyen Hung Cuong, Deputy Director of VTC Intecom, game copyright infringement is escalating at an alarming rate. He stated that this activity has gone far beyond spontaneous acts, becoming a well-organized "chain" involving numerous individuals and professional groups.

While an official mobile game takes 1-2 months to complete, pirate groups can create a copy in just about 3 days. Businesses may spend weeks tracking down and shutting down a pirated server, but the infringers can set up a new server in about 3 hours.

Looking at the South Korean case, although authorities can quickly identify and apprehend offenders within 1-2 weeks of discovering the illegal activity, the fact that the pirated servers are located overseas makes the investigation, prosecution, and extradition of criminals to South Korea much more difficult.

We need landmark cases.

According to a representative from the Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention Department (Ministry of Public Security), the investigation, prosecution, and trial of intellectual property-related cases in Vietnam can take many years, exceeding the product lifecycle of a game.

Notably, determining the damages necessary for criminal prosecution faces numerous obstacles due to the lack of a specialized agency to assess the extent of the damage and the difficulty in tracing the illicit profits from advertising on infringing websites. Therefore, in addition to strengthening measures to block access to illegal servers, it is necessary to strictly handle a number of typical cases, creating exemplary cases to ensure deterrence.

According to Deputy Director of the Copyright Office Le Minh Tuan, the Vietnamese game industry needs the cooperation of regulatory agencies, businesses, game creators, individual users, and copyright protection organizations in building a modern legal framework, effectively protecting copyrights, and raising community awareness. Sharing monitoring models, infringement detection technologies, and international cooperation mechanisms is also essential.

While awaiting further refinement of the legal framework, VTC Intecom Deputy Director Nguyen Hung Cuong suggested that game businesses should continue to implement a three-layer defense system, including: strengthening technical solutions to secure systems and detect early signs of infringement; registering intellectual property rights combined with a rapid response mechanism, requiring major digital platforms to remove infringing content within a short period of time.

At the same time, it is important to encourage the gaming community to participate as an active and effective monitoring force. This requires building alliance mechanisms and operating an IP hotline to shorten the processing time for violations; transferring modern technology at a reasonable cost; and closely coordinating efforts to prevent game piracy.

Yu Byoung Han, Chairman of the Korea Gaming Culture Foundation and Chairman of the Korea Software Copyright Association, believes that copyright protection is a prerequisite for maintaining the strong growth of the gaming industry.

With the gaming industry booming and Vietnamese youth showing increasing interest in games and software, strengthening information security and protecting intellectual property rights has become more urgent than ever. Copyright protection serves as both a safeguard for the gaming market and a crucial driving force for content creation in the digital environment.

Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/van-hoa/suc-bat-giup-nganh-game-viet-but-pha-187738.html