Gov't Continues Fight against Illegal Computer Software

Gov't Continues Fight against Illegal Computer Software

Inspectors from the Ministry of Culture and Information, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Economic Police under the Ministry of Police on November 18-19, 2004 in Ho Chi Minh City jointly executed raids against two prominent suppliers of computer systems in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City: Phong Vu and Hoan Long Company. The authorities recorded severe breaches of administrative management regulations and confiscated 40 CD-ROMs and 30 computers from the two companies which would later be subject to legal proceedings.

During the surprise raid, the inspectors found many computer programs illegally installed on the computers including Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Vietkey 2000, Adobe Photoshop, ACD See and CorelDraw, at an estimated value of over Vietnamese Dong 150,000 million (US$10,000). Similar to what was found during the campaign in May, those computer programs had been pre-installed on computers due to be sold to end users.

The two above mentioned computer hardware suppliers have violated point B, clause No.5 under article 42 of the Decree 31/2001/ND-CP issued on 26 June 2001 by the Vietnam Government on penalty for breaches of administrative management regulations in the field of Culture and Information. The Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Culture and Information has announced the decision to fine each company 25 million Vietnamese Dong (US$ 2000), the average fine level stipulated under clause 2, article 5 of the mentioned Decree in addition to removing all software programs installed on the 30 computers and confiscating 40 CD-ROMs containing unlicensed software programs.  

Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Culture and Information, Mr Phan An Sa said, "In both cases, we found that the hardware suppliers are competing unfairly with legitimate resellers of computer products by installing unauthorized software onto computers they sell as an incentive. The authorities, with assistance from copyright holders, are vigilant in monitoring the activities of software and hardware distributors to ensure that they are abiding by the law, and we will not hesitate to bring offenders to justice."

"The raids were the result of a culmination of investigations conducted by the concerned authorities over the last several months and were part of the government's efforts to step up its campaign to rid the country of software piracy in line with the consensus of the National Convention on Intellectual Property held in September this year," Mr Sa continued.

Mr Sa concluded: "In order to create a healthy environment for investments, to safeguard the benefits of legitimate channels and consumers and to encourage innovation and development of our own software industry, the illegal software trade must stop. Dealers and users of illegal software will no doubt be apprehended" 

The raids were significant as they demonstrated the commitment of the Vietnamese Government to eradicate piracy in the country. Furthermore, the raids were executed just weeks after the Berne Convention to which Vietnam is a signatory effective October 26, 2004.   

Rampant piracy poses a major threat to Vietnam's long term economic prospects and integration into the world economy. At present, Vietnam remains a country that has widespread software piracy which significantly undermines its eligibility for membership to the World Trade Organization and implementation of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements. Hence, the fact that IPR and software piracy prevention are now treated as top priorities by the government demonstrates its commitments to protect the development of the local software industry and to ensure a healthy investment climate, thereby contributing to the economic development of the country and compliance with the requirements of bilateral trade agreements and WTO membership.        

• Thanh Hoa