Vietnam lawmakers reluctant on longer copyright terms

Jun 4, 2009, 10:04 GMT

   Hanoi - Opposition from lawmakers to lengthening copyright terms is unlikely to have much real effect on copyright enforcement in Vietnam, experts said Thursday.

   Vietnam's National Assembly earlier this week discussed amending the country's intellectual property laws to meet its agreements with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United States.

   Some lawmakers baulked at a promise made to the US to lengthen some copyright terms from 50 to 75 years, longer than required by the global Berne Convention on copyright.

   But when US trade representatives met Thursday morning with their Vietnamese counterparts, the issue of copyright terms was not controversial, according to a US official present at the meeting.

   The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said negotiators were confident Vietnam was sticking to its commitments under a 2000 bilateral trade agreement with the US and its 2007 agreement to join the WTO. Both agreements included the 75-year copyright term.

   In any case, the official said, the main problem with copyright in Vietnam is not the letter of the law but lack of enforcement.

   Stopping widespread violations is the biggest concern for international copyright holders in Vietnam, said Greg Buhyoff, an intellectual property specialist at the Hanoi office of international law firm Lovells LLP.

   'At the end of the day, the bigger concern for owners of copyright - whether it's 50 or 75 years - is: let's enforce the darn things,' Buhyoff said.

   The copyright terms in question are mainly those for films and sound recordings.

   The piracy rate on DVDs and CDs in Vietnam remains well above 90 per cent, according to international estimates. Recent efforts to enforce software copyrights have brought the piracy rate for software down to roughly 85 per cent.