Vietnam Convicts Pirate Site Operators; a Rare Case Completed in Record Time

The apparent complexity of Vietnam's legal system has hindered Hollywood's enforcement efforts for years; investigations have been known to move at glacial pace before simply melting away. When three local men were arrested in January for running illegal streaming sites, few expected a rapid conclusion. Yet after facing trial last week, all three were found guilty of copyright crimes, at a court where a copyright case had never been heard before.

The double threat of some of the world’s largest pirate sites operating from Vietnam, yet limited opportunity to conduct robust enforcement actions to turn that situation around, remains a constant source of frustration for overseas rightsholders.

Hollywood’s opinion on what needs to be done wouldn’t be any more clear if its submissions to the USTR were written in all caps then underlined. In light of a criminal complaint against the operator of Phimmoi.net, that after much work simply vanished into the ether, overall progress has fallen well short of expectations.

Anime and manga producers based in Japan face similar challenges but with relatively few resources, at least when compared to those at Hollywood’s disposal, they hope that collaborating with partners will eventually break the impasse. News of a rapid conclusion to a rare online piracy investigation will likely be considered a plus.

Pirate Streaming Site Operators Targeted in January

News in January that police in Vietnam had arrested three men behind an illegal streaming operation was unexpected.

Information provided by the Quang Binh Provincial Police Department was soon confirmed by state-controlled media. The report said that 30-year-old Phan Ngoc Tuan, a resident of Quang Binh province, had been arrested on suspicion of operating the pirate sites bilutvt.net, tvhayh.org and animefull.net. The arrest later featured on national TV.

Authorities claimed that Tuan recruited two men, 24-year-old Ngo Quang Huy and 25-year-old Nguyen Thanh Nhan, both of Ho Chi Minh City. The men never met in person, since all duties were carried out via Telegram.

These apparently proactive arrests didn’t just lead to the men being prosecuted. Authorities demonstrated the type of speed and efficiency Hollywood has been requesting for many years. It seems that when the stars align, all things are possible.

Trio on Trial

The men faced trial at the People’s Court of Quang Binh province starting July 11, with local media confirming charges of “Infringement of copyright and related rights” under Article 225 of the Penal Code.

Information relating to the alleged crimes, outlined by the authorities back in January, featured almost identically during the trial.

The Court heard how 30-year-old Tuan began work on the sites back in 2019, aiming to distribute movies to the public, without permission from rightsholders, for the purpose of generating illegal profits from advertising. To avoid detection, Tuan reportedly bought domain names, rented virtual servers, and utilized hosting space, outside Vietnam.

Tuan went on to recruit Ngo Quang Huy and Nguyen Thanh Nhan, who were tasked with downloading, editing and distributing movies. The men were also responsible for increasing user engagement to attract advertising revenue.

Scale of Infringement

At the time of the arrests in January, police reported that Tuan had a library of 188,322 movie files, amounting to roughly 40TB of data.

During their trial, the men were accused of illegally broadcasting 57 Vietnamese and 14 ‘foreign’ films, which through advertising generated almost 2.7 billion VND (~US$106,500) over the course of the offending, slightly less than the 3 billion VND estimate from January.

After reviewing the evidence, the court sentenced the men as follows:

• Phan Ngoc Tuan: 24 months (suspended) + 2 billion VND (~US$78,800) fine.
• Ngo Quang Huy: 15 months (suspended) + 490 million VND (~US$19,300) fine.
• Nguyen Thanh Nhan: 9 months (suspended) + 184 million VND (~$US7,250) fine.

According to local media, this was the first case accepted and resolved by the Provincial People’s Court where a defendant was accused of copyright crimes.

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