Ho Chi Minh City (VNA) – Police in Ho Chi Minh City have launched criminal proceedings against a freelance singer and a media company executive for infringing music copyrights on YouTube, as part of a broader crackdown on intellectual property violations in the digital environment.
The Investigation Police Agency under the municipal Public Security Department said on August 5 that it had prosecuted and placed in temporary detention Nguyen Thi Hien, owner of the YouTube channel Phuong Diem Huyen, and Nguyen Thanh Hiep, Director of Unicorn Vietnam Media and Entertainment Co., Ltd., for investigation on the charge of infringing copyright and related rights under Article 225 of Vietnam's Penal Code.
According to the investigation, Hien cooperated with BH Media to manage the Phuong Diem Huyen YouTube channel, which has hundreds of thousands of subscribers and features thousands of Bolero and lyrical music videos.
The investigation found that she had uploaded and exploited numerous copyrighted musical works over a long period without obtaining permission from copyright holders or paying royalties as required by law. Several of the videos attracted millions of views.
According to the investigation agency, the violations caused copyright holders losses of hundreds of millions of Vietnamese dong while generating unlawful profits of hundreds of millions of dong for Hien through YouTube monetisation.
In a separate case, the Investigation Police Agency also prosecuted Hiep, whose company operates the “liveshowunicorn2988” YouTube channel in cooperation with BH Media. The channel hosts nearly 1,000 videos and has attracted hundreds of millions of views.
Preliminary findings showed that between 2021 and 2026, Hiep uploaded hundreds of copyrighted musical works by composers represented by the Vietnam Centre for Protection of Music Copyright without authorisation or royalties. More than 200 videos were found to have infringed copyright.
According to the investigation agency, the violations caused copyright holders losses exceeding 100 million VND (3,800 USD) while generating hundreds of millions of Vietnamese dong in unlawful profits from YouTube.
The agency said that a licence to organise a live performance does not automatically grant the right to record, reproduce or upload musical works to online platforms.
Under Vietnamese law, performance rights, reproduction rights and the right to communicate works to the public are separate property rights. Each must be authorised by the copyright holder, the owner of related rights or an authorised collective management organisation unless otherwise provided by law.
Authorities also urged media companies, event organisers, content producers and digital platform operators to verify the copyright status of works, sign licensing agreements, keep documentation proving their rights to use protected content and fully pay royalties before publishing material online.
Ho Chi Minh City's Investigation Police Agency said investigations into the cases are continuing in accordance with the law./.
No tolerance for digital copyright infringement
According to experts, copyright protection in the digital era cannot rely solely on manual enforcement but requires integrated technologies such as content recognition systems, digital fingerprinting, rapid takedown tools, source tracing, advertising controls and financial monitoring.
