China sets up committee for written works copyright protection

A woman reads a book at a bookstore in Bijie City, southwest China's Guizhou Province, April 22, 2020. (Photo by Wang Chunliang/Xinhua)

BEIJING, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Copyright Society of China on Saturday set up a working committee on copyright protection of written works in Beijing under the guidance of the National Copyright Administration.

The establishment of the committee will help improve copyright protection mechanisms and protect the lawful rights and interests of copyright owners, according to experts.

China's online literature industry suffers an average annual loss of over 5 billion yuan (about 726 million U.S. dollars) due to piracy, industry data showed.

According to this year's legislation plan, the strengthening of copyright protection of online content will be added to the draft amendment to the Copyright Law.

In the Internet era, the protection of written works copyrights is of great significance to the healthy and orderly development of the industry, said Yu Cike, head of the copyright management division under the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.  ■

Vietnamese tech firm sues TikTok, alleging copyright infringement

FILE PHOTO: A TikTok logo is displayed on a smartphone in this illustration taken January 6, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnamese technology firm VNG is suing TikTok, the popular short-form video app, saying it does not have adequate licences for the songs being used in its videos, sources said on Monday.

VNG is accusing the Chinese-owned company of using audio tracks owned by Zing, a VNG subsidiary, without the company’s consent, two sources familiar with the issue said.

A legal document from the people’s court of Ho Chi Minh City seen by Reuters seeks damages from TikTok and demands that it ceases use of Zing’s music.

“VNG requests TikTok remove all music segments taken from Zing records from both the TikTok application and website, and an indemnification for damages of over 221 billion dong ($9.5 million),” read the document.

TikTok and VNG did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

VNG Corporation is a Vietnam-based technology firm founded in 2004, known for its online games, music streaming and messaging applications.

TikTok has soared in popularity in Vietnam, where it recorded 10 million users as of August with millions of short-clip uploads to the platform, official data showed.

But some music rights-holders say TikTok does not have adequate licences for the songs being used in its videos.

“Notably, TikTok has introduced a very complicated business model to avoid copyright compliance in Vietnam,” the Vietnam Music Association said in a response to questions from Reuters.