VietNamNet Bridge – The Motion Picture Association of America (MPA) has requested the Ministry of Information and Communications to take steps to prevent copyright violations of the films produced by its members on the mobile applications developed by Vietnamese entities.

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The MPA has sent the request to Information and Communications Minister Nguyen Bac Son asking for prompt actions to stop access to Cartoon HD and HD Cartoon online movie watching applications for smartphones and iPads in Vietnam.

According to MPA, the applications enable users to download and watch movies and TV programs on mobile devices. The applications copy and distribute productions to audiences without having any agreements with the MPA member studios that own such copyrights.

MPA said the two applications violate Vietnam’s regulations on online information management, websites and intellectual property rights. Enclosed with the written request are documents and evidence which the association has collected to prove violations of Cartoon HD and HD Cartoon.

Uploaded by Gappcenter.com and available on Apple App Store and Google Play Store, Cartoon HD allows downloading of movies onto mobile devices. HD Cartoon has the same functions and is uploaded by Ohchoi.com.

More than 14,000 movies are alleged to be available on the two applications for downloading and many of them are new productions.

MPA also provides information about names, addresses, phone numbers and emails of the application developers and administrators in HCMC.

Cartoon HD is mainly for the UK market with its daily revenue of around US$200.

A source from the ministry said the ministry is coordinating with relevant authorities to deal with the cases.

Last year, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism also got a request from MPA to take preventive measures against http://phim47.com, http://v1vn.com and http://pub.vn over signs of copyright violations of the productions belonging to its members. The three Vietnamese websites were fined and required to remove all the pirated movies after last July.

MPA members include Paramount Pictures Corporation, Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Universal City Studios LLC, Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

SGT/VNN