Vietnam’s leading mobile network providers Viettel, Vinaphone, Mobifone, S-Fone, Beeline, Vietnam Mobile and EVN have been accused of using unauthorized Korean music for their ringtones after it was found they purchased copyright from the wrong company.

The Vietnam Center for Protection of Music Copyright (VCPMC) - authorized by Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) to hold copyright of the Korean tracks - has recently filed complaints to these companies.

These mobile providers replied they had bought the right from MTV Neowiz Internet Vietnam, a Ho Chi Minh City-based company which told them it owned the right to distribute Korean music in Vietnam.

However, KOMCA affirmed that it did not grant copyright to any other entities but VCPMC in Vietnam and the agency could totally sue Neowiz Vietnam.

“We didn’t know this at all as we believed that NEOWIZ Vietnam owned the right and they did state that in our business contracts,”

“Now I really don’t know how to think of this, either we made a mistake for lack of information or we are actually cheated by them,” a spokesperson of one of these providers said.

So far only 5 out of these providers said they would cooperate with the center for a plan to fix the problem while others gave no response, an official of the agency said.

NEOWIZ Vietnam has already admitted it was wrong and promised to transfer the money it received from selling this music to VCPMC.

In recent years, as Korean music has been all the rage in Vietnam, illegal uses of these music products are not uncommon, a spokesperson of VCPMC said.

In 2007, the center represented KOMCA to sue Hanoi-based media company VTC Online when it used a number of Korean tracks for Game Audition, one of its game products.

The most recent case was in 2010, when Korean top boy band Big Bang’s “Haru Haru” hit was re-released with Vietnamese lyric in a music album without paying any copyright fee.

Phap Luat/Tuoitrenews