Hanoi (VNA) – The rapid rise of digital piracy is forcing Vietnam’s publishing industry to rethink its approach to copyright protection, shifting from post-violation settlement to proactive prevention built on stronger laws, technological solutions and greater public awareness.
Rising violations in digital space
The rapid growth of digital publishing and the broader shift to online platforms have been accompanied by a sharp rise in copyright infringement in cyberspace.
While copyright infringement in the past largely involved illegal printing, commercial photocopying and unauthorised reprints, violations have increasingly migrated to the digital sphere. Electronic publications can now be scanned, converted into PDF, EPUB or audiobook formats and distributed through social media platforms, pirate websites, free reading apps, cloud-storage services and private groups on Telegram, Facebook and Google Drive, often within days of their release.
Publishers say such violations are spreading at an alarming pace. Adding to the challenge, artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being misused to reproduce book content through videos and livestreams or generate derivative works from copyrighted materials without authorisation. Annual losses from copyright infringement in Vietnam’s digital content sector are estimated at around 7 trillion VND (over 265 million USD).
One of the major challenges at present is that identifying and handling violations in the online environment still faces obstacles as violators often use cross-border platforms, servers located overseas, anonymous accounts, or continuously change domain names to evade enforcement.
Many suspicious links are reported, but there is insufficient verified evidence for enforcement because data is scattered, copyright contracts are stored separately, there is no centralised retrieval mechanism, and common data standards have yet to be established.
Based on this reality, many organisations said that effective protection of digital copyright requires a shift from relying solely on post-infringement enforcement to building a comprehensive rights management framework from the outset, integrating technology, data, and legal mechanisms.
Strengthening technological shields
In response to increasingly sophisticated copyright infringements, the Prime Minister’s Official Dispatch No. 38/CĐ-TTg calls for a decisive shift from a “post-violation response” approach to “proactive prevention,” with technology and inter-agency coordination serving as key pillars of IP protection in the digital environment.
According to the Copyright Office of Vietnam, three key measures are being implemented, including requiring intermediary platforms to remove infringing content within 24 to 72 hours; developing copyright protection mechanisms for the AI environment to prevent the unauthorised use of data for training models; and stepping up strict enforcement against organised infringement through administrative sanctions or criminal prosecution.
Many companies said that improving the legal framework is an urgent priority. They have called on establishing a more effective “notice-and-takedown” mechanism that will shorten response times, enhance the accountability of digital platforms in coordinating enforcement efforts, and allow temporary blocking measures to be imposed on websites involved in serious copyright violations.
According to BOOKAS JSC, establishing a centralised rights database will help improve transparency in content licensing and exploitation activities by clearly identifying rights holders, the scope of authorised use, and the validity period of each publication. It will also enable publishers, distributors, and digital platforms to connect through a shared data infrastructure, facilitating more effective rights management and enforcement.
They also suggested studying the adoption of unique identification codes or content traceability mechanisms for each publication to facilitate verification and data cross-checking when infringements are detected. This is viewed as a suitable approach in line with the digital transformation and data governance requirements of Vietnam’s publishing industry in the long term.
In addition, they called for stronger cooperation between management agencies and major cross-border platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Google Play, TikTok, and Telegram to accelerate the removal of infringing content. They also proposed developing a dedicated legal framework for electronic publications targeting children.
Regarding technical perspective, digital publishing companies are gradually investing in technological solutions to strengthen their self-protection capabilities.
Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies are being deployed to encrypt content, control access rights, limit the number of authorised devices, and prevent unauthorised downloads. Many publishers have also adopted digital watermarking systems to trace the source of leaked content, implemented login session management mechanisms, and used AI and big data tools to scan for and detect infringing content across social media platforms, websites, and data storage services.
Experts said as digital transformation accelerates, copyright data, rights management technologies, and inter-agency coordination mechanisms will become the three fundamental pillars for building a more transparent and sustainable digital publishing market.
At the same time, raising public awareness of IP rights is seen as a long-term solution. Fostering the habit of using legitimate copyrighted publications, respecting authors’ rights, and promoting a healthy digital consumption culture will help create a more sustainable environment for the publishing industry in the future./.
