Singer Thai Thuy Linh has lodged a petition with the Vietnam Centre for Protection of Music Copyright (VCPMC) against eight websites for allowing their visitors to illegally download songs from her latest album.
Linh spent time, effort and money to complete her album
Linh has demanded the websites pay her VND350 million (USD16,750) in compensation for illegally uploading and allowing downloads of her Bo doi album, also known as The Soldier album.
Her The Soldier Vol 3 album includes a collection of ‘red’ or revolutionary and American War inspired music, which was officially issued in January 2011.
However, Linh found that her album had been widely uploaded on several websites that allowed their visitors to listen to and download her songs freely or at minor charge just a few days after the album release without asking for her approval.
According to Linh\'s research, the websites had hundreds of hits and downloads of her album per day. In the meantime, she has just sold 500 of 2,000 CDs that cost her VND250 million (USD11,964) to release.
In response to their violations, on June 22, 2011, Linh decided to lodge a petition to VCPMC, asking the organisation to protect her legal interests.
According to VCPMC\'s representative lawyer, in the last three months dealing with the case, the centre has sent official dispatches to eight companies or bodies guilty of the most serious violations. Most of the violators admitted their guilt and wanted to negotiate compensation.
Linh claimed compensation of VND500 per hit or download, bringing the total required reimbursement to VND350 million (USD16,750). The compensation requirement was made based on the centre\'s estimate on the total hits and downloads as of August 25 this year.
The lawyer said, those only hosted Linh’s album for listening should also pay damages. However, the visitors to the offending websites were free from any responsibility, he shared.
"It took me a lot of time, effort and money to complete the album. I was seriously unhappy when being informed that the album had been illegally uploaded and used online. I had to halt my performance tour of 10 universities to promote the album in order to deal with the violations," Linh shared.
This is the first case of this type that the centre has decided to provide support for as several of the guilty sites had yet to pay copy rights fees for musicians of songs they used.
Linh\'s lawsuit is expected to be a warning to \'innocent\' website users and encourage the empowerment of musicians in claiming for their rights in the time to come.
The centre\'s lawyer said, "In order to prevent similar violations in the future, it\'s vital to have the support of website users and stricter punishments. The current minimum fine of VND8 million (USD382.8) is not strict enough for prevention."
The centre is going to send official dispatches to violators for the third time to demand compensation if it does not receive co-operative responses from the violators.
Linh has pledged that she will continue to pursue a legal case against those websites that continue to ignore their responsibility.
Revenues from her album have been severely affected by the illegal downloads
