VietNamNet Bridge – A series of inspection tours have been made recently to find out the businesses and individuals using pirated software. Meanwhile, a software piracy lawsuit has been raised, for the first time in Vietnam.

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) on December 18 officially announced its decision to take legal proceedings against Gold John Dong Nai Vietnam International Company Ltd.

The defendant, a Taiwanese invested enterprise which produces shoe fabric for Nike, Adidas, Converse, has been accused of using software products without permission.

The plaintiffs are Lac Viet Company and Microsoft Vietnam, which accuse the Taiwanese enterprise of using their software products illegally.

The extraordinary inspection taken by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Public Security on June 17 discovered the pirated software installed in 69 computers which served the operation of the company.

The pirated software is worth VND1 billion, or $45,000.

Gold Long John Dong Nai Vietnam has admitted its violation.

The representatives of Lac Viet and Microsoft Vietnam said they thought very carefully before deciding to raise the lawsuit.

The companies, after discovering that the company has been using their software illegally for a long time, many times gave warnings and asked to stop the violations within 3 months. However, the company has not done anything to fulfill the request.

The two plaintiffs said they hope the violator would make appropriate compensations for the illegal use of the software. The company will also have to make apologize on mass media.

Director of Lac Viet Company Ha Than said $45,000 is not a big sum of money for both Lac Viet and Microsoft Vietnam. However, they still have decided to raise the lawsuit as a strict warning to other violators.

Than stressed that Vietnam is the country which has the copyright laws and all the behaviors of violating the laws must be punished heavily and the legal rights of enterprises must be protected.

This is the first time the violations in software copyright have been brought to the court.

According to Vu Ngoc Hoan, Acting Director of the Copyright Agency under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, copyright piracy cases have been dealt with as civil, administrative and criminal cases.

Administrative measures, under which violators have to pay fines, have been used in most of the cases. However, the fines are not heavy enough to deter the violators.

Therefore, competent agencies have encouraged copyright owners to take legal proceedings against the violators or apply civil measures to more strictly deter the violators.

Relevant agencies have organized a lot of inspection campaigns to discover the pirated software users.

Local newspapers have reported that the inter-ministerial inspectors have found the software products of Microsoft, Lac Viet at VS Industry Vietnam, Fico Tay Ninh and Thai Binh Shoes.

Prior to that, inspectors found the software products worth VND10 billion being used at six foreign companies in Hanoi in October 2013. This was a part of a large scale inspection campaign targeting the foreign invested enterprises with powerful financial capability in the fields of footwear, pharmacy, garments and electronics.

According to BSA, the software piracy rate is now 81 percent, a decrease of 11 percent from the 92 percent rate in 2004. Vietnam has been recognized as one of the countries dealing with the problem most effectively.

Buu Dien