From 2019 through 2023, three individuals operated and supported illegal services to illegally distribute films produced in Vietnam and other countries, bringing in about VND2.7 billion (equivalent to about US$107,500).
The People’s Court of Quang Binh Province sentenced the primary operator, 30 year-old Phan Ngoc Tuan, to 24 months in prison with a suspended sentence, 48 months of probation, and it confiscated 2,006,539,128 VND ($78,306 USD) to be allocated towards public funds. A January police report quoted by the TechNadu news service of India said that Tuan had 188,322 movie files, taking up 40 terabytes of storage. The indictment said that the services distributed 57 movies from Vietnam plus 14 from other countries.
According to reporting by the Vietnamese news site QuangBinh, Tuan was indicted for creating, managing and operating an illegal service. To facilitate operations, he “bought domain names, rented virtual servers abroad, bought open source code to connect to the server, anonymized software and Online storage accounts and technical tools for downloading, editing, storing and broadcasting film and cinematographic works for easy access by viewers.” Tuan used a social media account to promote the illegal service.
Two supporting operators, both in their 20s, also were sentenced. Those individuals were hired to sell advertising and to find and download movies for illegal distribution. One of them will serve 15 months in prison with a suspended sentence and 18 months of probation. The court confiscated 490,580,700 VND ($19,144 USD). The other was ordered to serve 9 months in prison with 18 months of probation. The court will confiscate 184,123,100 VND ($7,185 USD). All confiscated money will go toward public funds.
QuangBinh News said that this was the first instance in which the Provincial People’s Court of Vietnam “accepted and resolved a case for the crime of ‘Infringement of copyright and related rights.'”
Further reading
Trial of 3 defendants for the crime of “Infringement of copyright and related rights.” Article. July 11, 2024. QuangBinh Newspaper (Vietnam)
Three pirate Website operators convicted and fined in Vietnam. Article. July 16, 2024. by Lore Apostol. TechNagu (India)
ACE commends Vietnamese court and local law enforcement for second conviction of illegal streaming service operators. Press release. July 24, 2024. Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) / Motion Picture Association (MPA)
Why it matters
“Violations of intellectual property and copyrights, particularly those of foreign rights holders, disrupt business operations,” said Judge Nguyen Xuan Dieu, the Chief Judge of the Criminal Court of Quang Binh Provincial People’s Court. “This also negatively affects foreign investment in Vietnam. It affects the country’s reputation and violates international conventions on intellectual property, Vietnam’s intellectual property laws, the Penal Code, and other regulations,” he added.
“The Vietnamese criminal court and local law enforcement have issued a strong deterrence message in the successful prosecution of the operators in the BiluTV case,” said Larissa Knapp, Executive Vice President and Chief Content Protection Officer for the MPA. “Some of the world’s most widely accessed illegal streaming sites are based in Vietnam. While the conviction of the three defendants marks the second milestone this year in Vietnam’s fight to protect intellectual property, much more work remains to be done in this space and we look forward to ongoing collaboration with the Vietnamese justice system and future landmark convictions of criminal targets there.”
(Picture details: Scene of the Trial. Provincial People’s Court. Source: (c) Quang Binh Newspaper, Vietnam)
