Le Quang Tu Do, head of the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information (ABEI) under the Ministry of Information and Communications, said at a press conference on September 6 that the watchdog agency has recorded copyright infringement of the British Premier League and matches of the Vietnamese national squad.

ABEI has joined forces with large businesses such as K+ and mobile network operators to implement solutions to stop copyright infringement. According to the Organizing Committee of the British Premier League, Vietnam was one of a few countries in the world that protected the copyright of the tournament.

According to ABEI, the result was still below expectation. Competent agencies, especially ABEI and the Authority of Information Security, have many times blocked websites with copyright infringement. 

“However, after a pirated website is blocked, the administrators of the website will change its IP address and domain name, and they can easily create a new pirated website,” Do said. “Therefore, this is a very severe ordeal.”

ABEI found that 239 websites organized illegal livestreams during the first four rounds of the British Premier League.

There were 3,213 URLs that provided broadcasting for 39 matches of the first four rounds for free. The content of the pirated websites was sourced from authentic copyrighted businesses, including K+, FPT Play and TV360.

Do said among these websites, the unit that infringed copyright the most was Xoi Lac TV, with 20 various domain names. At the football match between Chelsea and Liverpool, there were up to 140,000 views on Xoi Lac TV's websites.

ABEI is joining forces with the police and businesses to combat piracy. Xoi Lac TV is a web system running ‘professionally’, so it will not only be fined, but will bear sanctions at a higher level.

ABEI and other relevant agencies have blocked 162 websites in violation so far this year, while the figure will be up to thousands of webs, if counting websites which have had their domain names changed.

“Once a pirated web is blocked, another private channel will be set up. So this is a chase that costs a lot of resources,” Do said.

He said ABEI is working with content producers and telecom carriers to find new technological solutions to solve the problem more effectively.

ABEI warned that if people continue watching and supporting pirated websites such as Xoi Lac TV, authentic service providers will no longer buy copyright at high costs. This happened in the past. And, if so, viewers will be put at a disadvantage.

Van Anh