COPYRIGHT FOR PUBLISHING BOOKS AND STORIES IN VIETNAM

Publishing books and stories is one of the most developed and popular businesses. With the world integration of standards and regulations in intellectual property, issues related to copyright of books and stories are becoming increasingly tighter and clearer. However, copyright loopholes are still a painful problem, especially in the publishing field.

1. What is copyright? Why do books and stories need to be copyrighted when published?

1.1.      Copyright

Copyright is a term used by countries following the Anglo-American legal system (case law) to refer to intangible rights to intellectual works. This right is similar to copyright in Vietnam in particular and countries following the continental European law system such as Germany or some other European countries but differs in many basic points.

The protected subjects are quite different. While copyright puts the author as the creator and the author’s spiritual relationship with the work at the center, copyright protects the economic interests of the copyright owner more the author. Copyright is primarily used to protect economic investments. It is from this foundation that the law of the English-speaking regions and the law of continental Europe have come to different results on many legal issues. Accordingly, Vietnam’s Intellectual Property Law stipulates that copyright is the right of organizations and individuals to works they create or own.

1.2.      Why do publishing books and stories need copyright?

Publishing is the organization, exploitation of manuscripts, editing into templates for printing and distribution or for direct release via electronic means. To be published, the publisher first needs to buy the copyright of that type of book or story from the author or ownership organization. Buying copyright to publish books is to ensure the rights of the author, the owner of the book or story product, and to pay appropriate royalties and remunerations. If a unit publishes a book without copyright, that unit will be considered an infringer, because publishing a book without copyright is considered one of the acts of infringing intellectual property rights and violating publishing law regulations.

Specifically, publishing activities that are prohibited include the following:

– Publishing without registration, without a publishing decision or without a publishing license;

– Changing or falsifying the content of approved manuscripts or draft non-commercial documents bearing the seal of the publishing licensing agency;

– Pirated printing, counterfeit printing, unauthorized printing of copies of publications;

– Releasing publications that have no legal origin or have not yet been deposited;

– Publishing, printing, releasing publications that have been suspended, recalled, confiscated, banned from circulation, destroyed or illegally imported;

– Other prohibited acts according to the provisions of law.

2. Handling copyright violations in publishing books and stories

Currently, the book publishing market often has copyright violations. These are publications that are licensed to be published by the publisher but violate the Intellectual Property Law without the permission of the copyright owner of the publication. These copyright violate books are no less dangerous than pirated books when they are not secretly released but can be legitimately and legally sold at major bookstores.

This not only affects the rights of copyright owners, causing imbalance in publishing, but more harmfully, it also stagnates many healthy publishing transactions and threatens to destroy the entire book market of Vietnam.

Accordingly, violation of publishing regulations is understood as the act of not implementing, improperly or incompletely implementing the provisions of law on publishing and releasing the above-mentioned publications.

Therefore, violations of copyright in publishing books and stories are subject to administrative sanctions, specifically with the following penalties:

Pursuant to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 29 of Decree 159/2013/ND-CP, for one of the following acts, a fine of from VND 3,000,000 to VND 5,000,000 will be imposed:

– Publishing and releasing electronic publications without equipment and technical human resources according to the provisions of law on telecommunications, information technology, e-commerce, electronic transactions and other regulations of the relevant laws;

– There are no technical measures according to regulations to prevent illegal copying or interference with the content of electronic publications;

– Failure to comply with intellectual property regulations or not requiring agencies, organizations or individuals using the service to comply with intellectual property regulations when releasing electronic publications.

In addition to having to comply with a fine, when there are no technical measures according to regulations to prevent illegal copying or interference with the content of electronic publications, the electronic publication must be removed

In addition, when committing one of the acts specified in Clause 2, Article 29 of Decree 159/2013/ND-CP, you will be fined from 5,000,000 VND to 10,000,000 VND:

– Publishing and releasing electronic publications on the Internet without Vietnamese Internet domain names as prescribed by law;

– Failure to register publishing activities and release electronic publications with competent state agencies according to regulations;

– Publishing or releasing electronic publications before obtaining written approval from the author or copyright owner;

– Converting electronic publications to print publications to disseminate to many people but not complying with regulations;

– Failure to implement technical measures to prevent interference with publication content or remove infringing publications at the request of competent state agencies.

In addition, violations of book and story publishing activities are also subject to criminal sanctions, specifically:

Crime of violating regulations on publishing activities is stipulated in Article 344 of the 2015 Penal Code as follows:

Anyone who violates regulations on publishing activities in one of the following cases will be subject to a warning, a fine from VND 20,000,000 to VND 200,000,000, non-custodial reform for up to 02 years, or Imprisonment from 03 months to 02 years:

– Failure to comply with regulations on editing and reviewing manuscripts but still publishing the publication, having been administratively sanctioned for this behavior but still violating it;

– Printing more than 2,000 copies of each publication without confirmation of publication registration, without a publishing decision or a license to publish non-commercial documents; There is no signed draft according to the provisions of law;

– Publishing, printing or releasing publications that have been suspended from release, recalled, confiscated, banned from circulation, destroyed or illegally imported with a quantity of 500 copies or more for each publication;

– Posting on electronic media publications with prohibited content according to the provisions of law or without confirmation of publication registration, without a publishing decision, without a signed manuscript for publication that publication;

– Committed a crime with a quantity of publications below the limit specified in one of Points b or c of this Clause, and has been administratively sanctioned for one of the acts specified in Points b and Point c of this Clause, or has been convicted of this crime, has not had his criminal record erased but is still violating it;

– Not submitting publications for deposit but still releasing publications, having been administratively sanctioned for this behavior but still violating it.

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Not only that, people who commit crimes related to publishing will be sentenced to imprisonment from 02 to 05 years if they fall into the following cases:

– Organized;

– Changing or falsifying the content of a signed manuscript or a draft of a non-commercial document that has been stamped by the publishing licensing agency to publish content that is prohibited according to the provisions of the Publishing Law;

– Releasing publications with prohibited content according to the provisions of the Publishing Law.

– In addition to criminal penalties, offenders may also be fined from VND 20,000,000 to VND 100,000,000, banned from holding certain positions, practicing certain occupations or doing certain jobs for 01 to 05 years.