Copyright infringement in the digital environment has become one of the biggest challenges facing Vietnam’s publishing industry, as the markets for e-books, audiobooks, and digital content continue to grow rapidly.
Losses running into trillions of Vietnamese dong
According to Nguyen Ngoc Bao, Deputy Director of the Authority of Publication, Printing and Distribution under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, copyright violations in the digital space are becoming increasingly sophisticated. These range from the illegal sharing of e-books and audiobooks on social media to the exploitation of cross-border platforms and even e-commerce marketplaces to distribute infringing content.
Statistics from the Authority of Publication, Printing and Distribution show that digital copyright violations cause losses of around VND7 trillion annually for Vietnam’s digital content industry. Publishing is among the sectors hardest hit, with revenues at many publishing houses and distribution companies declining by approximately 20 percent -30 percent.
However, revenue losses reflect only part of the problem.
What concerns publishers most is the speed at which pirated content spreads online. Representatives of the Science-Technology-Communications Publishing House said copyright infringement in the digital environment occurs extremely quickly, simultaneously across multiple platforms, and with a high degree of anonymity.
Once detected, violators can delete data, change accounts, or use tools to conceal their identities. Content removed from one platform can rapidly reappear under different accounts or domain names.
This creates major difficulties for verification, evidence collection, and legal enforcement procedures. As a result, the cycle of “removed today, reposted tomorrow” is hindering the development of Vietnam’s domestic digital publishing industry.
Vietnam’s struggles to close legal gaps in the online piracy fight
Facing mounting pressure from digital piracy, many companies have proactively invested in technical solutions to protect content, including anti-copying systems, screenshot prevention, watermarking, content encryption, device-access limitations, and technologies such as DRM, AI, and Big Data to detect violations.
Yet the gap between detecting infringement and completing legal procedures remains one of the biggest bottlenecks in handling digital copyright violations.
Representatives from the Ministry of Public Security said authorities regularly inspect, verify, and coordinate action against infringing websites based on reports provided by businesses. However, many companies still fail to provide sufficient evidence and related data, leaving authorities without adequate legal grounds for comprehensive enforcement measures.
Do Quang Dung, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Publishing Association, said many publishers have proposed treating the production and distribution of pirated books similarly to the production and sale of counterfeit goods in order to strengthen deterrence against violators.
In recent days, a series of pirate-book websites have hurriedly shut down out of fear of enforcement action following Official Dispatch No. 38/CD-TTg issued by the Prime Minister. According to Vietnam Publishing Association Vice Chairman Do Quang Dung, this demonstrates that if authorities enforce regulations seriously and comprehensively, both digital and printed pirated books will have little room to survive.
However, combating digital piracy still raises unresolved legal questions.
According to Director Nguyen Nguyen of the Authority of Publication, Printing and Distribution, under current regulations, producing more than 2,000 counterfeit printed books may trigger criminal prosecution. But for digital products, authorities still lack clear criteria on how violations should be quantified whether based on page views, downloads, or another measurement method.
Although there is growing optimism following stronger intervention by enforcement agencies, the fight against online book piracy still faces many unresolved challenges, from improving the legal framework and raising public awareness to building stronger coordination mechanisms capable of protecting Vietnam’s digital publishing ecosystem.
