Protecting press copyright in digital space - needing cooperation

This is an inevitable trend that requires press agencies to change their thinking, invest in human resources and technology to carry out flexible digital transformation that is suitable for reality.

A major challenge to the digital transformation of journalism is the problem of digital content copyright infringement. Accordingly, the phenomenon of violating the legal rights granted to creators or owners of digital content to control copying, distribution, and use in the digital environment is happening commonly with increasingly serious, complex nature and increasingly wide scope. This is a major barrier to digital transformation in current press agencies.

Journalism faces copyright infringement

As a field that responds sensitively to all changes in economic and social life, the press and media are not outside the trend of digital transformation. The digital transformation process creates many advantages but at the same time also makes the press face new challenges: copyright infringement is increasingly common and sophisticated, especially in the digital environment, with the explosion of social networks, news aggregators, etc.

Journalist Nguyen Minh Duc, Editor-in-Chief of Hanoi Moi Newspaper, commented: Copyright infringement of press works is still quite common, especially for electronic newspaper products. In fact, just one unit posting an article on any "hot" issue, or a quality press product, dedicated and invested by the author, immediately after that it is not difficult to find posts with identical content and images on many electronic news sites. There has been and is a situation where many newspapers, electronic news sites, social networks... arbitrarily take news, articles, and products from other units to repost, serving many purposes for individuals, agencies, and businesses. Many websites and fanpages even impersonate the brands of official press units to post unverified information. Not to mention, it is easy to come across articles that are copied using part or all of the news, articles, and photos from other articles without citing or not fully citing the source, and it is very difficult to control the situation of taking each other's articles.

Copyright infringement can come from websites with clear addresses and also from "3 no" sites: Unknown origin, unknown management agency, and social networks. Many newly published products have been arbitrarily taken back, exploited, and used illegally by other sites, social network accounts, etc. without citing the source or providing links. Meanwhile, readers tend to "read quickly", trust these websites and social network pages without reading official newspapers. Among them, the most violations and also the most difficult to handle copyright infringement issues come from "3 no" websites and social network accounts. These sites arbitrarily take back press products, exploit and use them, but press agencies are also quite "confused" in handling copyright issues.

From an economic perspective, uncontrolled copying of articles will affect the style of a newspaper, the copied newspaper will lose its loyal readers when it cannot protect its copyright. In addition, it also seriously affects the revenue of journalists when the advertising revenue of the copied newspaper decreases. When authentic journalistic works are copied and stolen, the problem is not simply copyright infringement, information is cut and copied, this violation also distorts and falsifies information. For press agencies, this violation affects the brand, reputation, and harms the labor achievements of copyright holders and journalists, while causing great economic losses - Journalist Nguyen Minh Duc said.

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Do Thi Thu Hang, Head of the Professional Department of the Vietnam Journalists Association, journalists violating press copyright is often considered a violation of ethical standards and media culture standards because it is related to a series of important values ​​in journalism and media, including honesty, reliability; respect for intellectual property rights; diversity and independence in information sources; promoting creativity and fairness.

The reason for the violation, Associate Professor, Dr. Do Thi Thu Hang said, is first of all because the internet allows press content to be shared and spread quickly. This makes it more difficult to control the copying and distribution of press content. With the emergence of many digital tools, copying and reusing press content becomes easier, especially on online platforms, creating an environment susceptible to copyright infringement.

In addition, in the digital environment, determining the origin (original product, author of the original product) is more difficult, because in this environment, information can be shared many times and the origin is unknown, leading to difficulties in determining the author and origin of an article. In addition, there are challenges in multinational law related to copyright and copyright protection of digital content. The Internet is an international online space, in which press copyright issues can arise in many different countries with different legal regulations, making the application of the law more difficult and complicated. The rapid development of technology has made changes in legal regulations not keep up, leading to the lack of or the sanctions for violations not keeping up with reality. In addition, there is still a large proportion of users, including journalists; content creators who lack understanding of copyright rights, and may unintentionally violate copyright. Awareness of copyright protection, knowledge, skills, cultural and ethical standards of journalists and press agencies have not really received the attention they need - Associate Professor, Dr. Do Thi Thu Hang said.

The war is not lonely

As one of the major newspapers that is often copied and infringed upon, Tuoi Tre Newspaper has taken many measures to protect its products. Journalist Nguyen Hoang Nguyen, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Secretary of the Tuoi Tre Newspaper Journalists Association, said: Copyright enforcement and the fight against copyright infringement are among the issues that the newspaper has been interested in and implemented for many years. The newspaper is always aware of and strictly implements copyright for journalistic works in accordance with the 2005 Intellectual Property Law and related laws. In addition to respecting copyright, the work of protecting copyright for journalistic works of the Newspaper has been implemented since 2013, and has achieved some results so far, the situation of illegal use of the newspaper's products has decreased compared to before. Awareness of copyright respect has also been raised through propaganda in the press and sanctions.

However, the biggest difficulty and obstacle in this work is that currently, the detection of copyright infringement is still mainly based on manual reading and detection. Tuoi Tre Newspaper does not have enough capacity to invest in technology to have tools to filter and scan violation reports, so the handling of violating units is not thorough. Thereby, the Newspaper representative recommends that the Ministry of Information and Communications and state management agencies continue to review relevant legal regulations to have a legal basis capable of handling deterrent sanctions. Professional units under the Ministry of Information and Communications can cooperate with large domestic technology corporations to invest in technology and AI to help press agencies have tools to control, inspect, review, classify, and detect copyright infringement.

Each press agency also needs to increase articles to fight, propagate, and disseminate legal education on press copyright protection to attract the attention of society, change, and raise awareness, thereby contributing to preventing and repelling this violation. A press agency cannot fight copyright infringement alone, it requires solidarity, cooperation, and contribution from many press agencies. The Vietnam Journalists Association needs to pay attention to this content, can be the focal point to organize seminars to find solutions and soon take necessary steps to establish an alliance or a center to protect copyright of press works - Journalist Nguyen Hoang Nguyen said.

Sharing the same opinion, journalist Nguyen Duc Hien, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Ho Chi Minh City Law Newspaper, said that it is necessary to establish a Center for the Protection of Press Copyright. Accordingly, press agencies can proactively cooperate to establish an Alliance for the Protection of Press Copyright to support each other in this activity. State management agencies of the press (Ministry of Information and Communications, Vietnam Journalists Association...) will take the lead in establishing a Center for the Protection of Press Copyright. This is not only a tool, but also directly expresses an attitude towards this situation.

In addition, journalist Nguyen Duc Hien also recommended that copyright should be more clearly defined in specialized laws such as the 2016 Press Law; penalties for violations of press copyright should be increased; provisions should be added to the Intellectual Property Law; and disputes should be encouraged through court proceedings.

To prevent their works from being stolen, Tuoi Tre Newspaper has established an Alliance with 5 press agencies; Ho Chi Minh City Law Newspaper has established a Copyright Protection Team for Press Works. At the seminar "Digital Transformation of Journalism - A Breakthrough for the Future" held on September 7, 2023, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association Le Quoc Minh affirmed: The Vietnam Journalists Association will support press agencies in protecting copyright and increasing revenue from exploiting user data. The Association will cooperate with large technology-based enterprises to support small press agencies that do not have enough infrastructure to carry out digital transformation; build a unified shared data system for press agencies; from now until the end of 2023, at least 30 press agencies will use this system.

Ms. Dang Thi Phuong Thao, Deputy Director of the Press Department (Ministry of Information and Communications) also affirmed: It is never too late to take steps to protect copyright for press agencies. The Press Department is continuing to advise the Ministry of Information and Communications to amend the Press Law, including press activities in cyberspace. "We will continue to advise on copyright issues, legal basis, and build a process to combat copyright violations in cyberspace; at the same time, we are ready to share data and technological solutions to coordinate with press agencies to scan for violating content. All press agencies that violate copyright when reporting to the Press Department, we will handle according to regulations," said Ms. Dang Thi Phuong Thao.

With the support of State management agencies and the determination and cooperation of press agencies, the protection of press rights in cyberspace will certainly have positive results in the coming time.