The Government issued Decree No 109/2011/ND-CP dated December 02, 2011 amending, supplementing some articles of the Decree No. 47/2009/ND-CP dated May 13, 2009, of the Government on sanctioning administrative violations of copyright and related rights.
Accordingly, reproducing a sound or video recording without permission of the copyright holder shall be subject to a fine of VND400-500 million (US$19,000-23,000) if the value of the recording is greater than VND500 million.
A sanction of VND500 million is applied for copying works, directly or indirectly copying a performance, copying the format of broadcast programme; appropriating rights to perform a work publicly, reproduce a work, distribute or import originals or copies of a work, rent out the originals or copies of a cinematographic work or computer programme, broadcast or rebroadcast a work. If it is impossible to estimate the value of the violated rights, violations shall be sanctioned a fine of VND20-80 million ($950-3,800).
Competence authorities may confiscate violating goods and carry out an appraisal of the value of goods as a basis for determining the level of fines.
The new decree takes effect on January 2012./.-ITD