Copyright infringement enters journalism field

Journalists are performing their duty at a SEA Games event. (Photo: SGGP)

Journalist Cong Sang from Nhip Cau Dau Tu Magazine admitted that he did not remember how many times his articles had been copied in full or in part by informal news websites without his permission. When detecting such cases, he usually shares them on his Facebook page, and certain websites might take those posts down, but most do not.

Sang stressed that copyright breach in the journalism field is unacceptable since this is a creative industry, and such piracy is unhealthy competitions. Any newspaper offices compromising with such acts are negatively affecting those that comply with the law and pay decent royalties to journalists.

Deputy Editor-in-Chief Dinh Duc Tho of Phap Luat Newspaper annoyingly said that many articles of his newspaper, some of which are even exclusive investigation reports, have been unlawfully copied by informal news websites to increase their views. Worse still, there are fake websites that illegally use the logo of Phap Luat Newspaper or fake Fanpage on social networks. This situation has become worryingly serious.

The most popular tricks for copyright infringement now are to compile various similar articles into one to post on a website before sharing it onto that website’s Fanpage; to process an image taken from a formal news website; to change the font of certain articles into unrecognizable fonts in order to avoid tracing tools.

Lawyer Truong Hong Tu – Director of Van Tam An One-member Co. Ltd. said that all products in the journalism field are subject to copyright law like those in other fields, except the cases specified in Clause 1 of Article 15 in the Intellectual Property Law (amended and supplemented in 2022).

Even ‘pure hot news’, which are not under the protection of the above Law, is subject to the Press Law. Accordingly, it is stipulated that journalism activities are creative ones, and that journalists must obey regulations on professional ethics. This means any copying of newspaper articles is considered a law offense and a violation of professional ethics.

Head Tran Hoang of Vietnam Copyright Office (under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) commented that there have been positive signs in the protection of copyright and related rights in the journalism field. Since a newspaper organization normally posts a large quantity of images, articles, video clips, it is critical to effectively administrate these assets. Only good management and exploitation of them can such an organization create huge values and contribute to preventing copyright infringement.

To improve the performance of copyright exploitation activities, press units together with relevant organizations should cooperate in information exchange, permission to repost articles, the development of collaboration agreements and regulations not only among the press units themselves but among social network sites as well.

Chairman of HCMC Journalists Association Nguyen Tan Phong proposed the establishment of a Center for Copyright Protection of Journalism Works in HCMC, saying that the careless unlawful copying of press works by websites and social network pages without citing has become tougher to handle due to the blooming of digital platforms, making it an urgent issue to address.

Moreover, some press agencies are so ignorant of the seriousness of copyright infringement. Their carefree thinking and handling of law violations have worsened the already terrible situation, hence the necessity for such a center above. Also, press organizations must actively raise the awareness of their employees, young and old, about respecting and protecting the copyright of products in the field, he added.

Deputy Editor-in-Chief Dinh Duc Tho of Phap Luat Newspaper shared that his staff have long been told to comply with the law: not using any illustrative images from the Internet without knowing clearly about the attached copyright requests; not using images or video clips from any newspapers that are not its partners for information exchange; and not editing any images that are not the possession of its journalists; not using any clips recorded by dashcams or security cameras without permission from the content owners. All violations of these rules have been strictly handled.