The infringement of copyright and related rights in Vietnam hasoccurred in various fields, with many serious cases happening on theinternet and in the digital environment, an official from the Ministryof Culture, Sports and Tourism stated on May 22.

Vu NgocHoan, deputy head of the ministry’s Copyright Office, pointed out thetrend at an online conference on the issue among authorities of Hanoi ,central Da Nang city and Ho Chi Minh City .

Hereported that despite efforts to protect copyright and related rights,the infringements cover many fields, including journalism, films, music,radio, television and computer content.

The breachhas affected creative activities, the investment environment,socio-economic and cultural development and international integration,Hoan noted.

In 2013, the ministry collected over 2billion VND (about 95,200 USD) in fines from businesses for softwarecopyright violations, and ordered three websites to remove thousands ofpirated films.

It also received 60 letters of complaint on copyright disputes over 142 book editions from 25 publishing houses.

Authorities and representatives from copyright protection centres saidthe rampant breach is partly due to the mildness of penalties as wellas a shortage of special agencies and concrete regulations.-VNA