Around 200 entertainment websites in Vietnam are infringing copyrights, with 40 of them identified as harmful to users, said an alliance of copyright owners including major domestic and foreign television stations and channels.

They said at a conference in HCMC on Wednesday that a majority of them are music and movie streaming sites which attract large numbers of users and thus generate big advertising revenues.

The alliance includes Vietnam Television (VTV), BHD Co Ltd, Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA), 21st Century Fox Inc., the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA), local pay TV network K+, and the Korea Communications Commission, a South Korean media regulatory agency.

It is tough to compete with channels that neither make proper investments nor hold copyrights, Phan Cam Tu from MPA told the conference on healthy and safe online entertainment.

John Medeiros from CASBAA suggested alliance members should collect information from sites providing entertainment content without copyrights and having advertising revenues, and sent it to authorities.

The list of violating websites should be handed to advertisers also, Medeiros said, adding copyright infringements have become widespread in Asia and that how to make advertisers avert these websites would be a solution.

In addition, Asian countries should raise public awareness of copyright protection, he added.

SGT