South Korean media group CJ E&M has called for Vietnamese authorities to take stronger actions to crack down on widespread movie piracy in the country.

Jung Tea Sun, general director of the firm in Vietnam, said at a seminar in HCMC last week that Vietnam could draw on Korean experiences in coping with film piracy, especially on the web.

If Vietnam revised regulations and issued tougher sanctions against movie piracy as Korea had done, hundreds of websites supplying pirated movies here in the nation could be shut down, he said.

He told the seminar on movie copyright protection in a digital era that in the early 2000s, when media technology was developing fast and entertainment demand was growing strong, Korea faced an upsurge in film copyright infringements.

This problem remains to be solved in Korea, however. He said Korean authorities found 2.7 billion cases of copyright violations in 2011 and that last year, the value of copyright infringements amounted to four trillion won (over US$3.8 billion).

He said just one-fifth of that amount would be enough to develop a strong movie industry.

Korean authorities have amended laws and regulations to deal with copyright violations in a way that seriously tackles film piracy, encourages lawsuits against such copyright violations, and forces movie websites to set up a piracy recognition and warning system.

However, he also highlighted public awareness of copyright violations as a key factor in the fight against movie piracy.

Lawyer Phan Vu Tuan, office manager of the Vietnam Intellectual Property Association, said there are currently hundreds of websites providing pirated movies in broad daylight but so far just three sites have been handled by authorities.

Artist Xuan Hai at the Vietnam Cinema Department said if authorities did not handle the widespread movie piracy, investors would not risk doing business here and movie producers would not sell their productions in Vietnam.

SGT/VNN