'Xoi Lac is associated with organized crime'

A representative of the Ministry of Information and Communications said that the Xoi Lac website, which specializes in illegally broadcasting football matches, is not simply a copyright violation.

"Gambling, online fraud, and loan sharking are associated with copyright crimes. Xoi Lac channel is not simply a group of curious kids live streaming to get numbers for fun, but is associated with organized crime," said Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lam, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, at a conference on broadcasting on October 13 in Ho Chi Minh City.

The Ministry representative said that copyright is a big and painful problem. Therefore, in the near future, the Ministry will establish a specialized team on copyright issues with the participation of both the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Public Security .

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lam, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications at the Workshop on management of radio and television services in Ho Chi Minh City on October 13. Photo: NT

Meanwhile, Ms. To Nam Phuong, representative ofFPT Play, said: "Sports tournaments are always livestreamed from the most rudimentary act of holding a phone to record and broadcast online, to sophisticated violations. If a copyrighted Cup C1 match only has a few hundred thousand views, at the same time on illegal websites there are millions of viewers. Just need to move 10% of viewers on violating channels like Xoi Lac back to OTT channels, the revenue can be reinvested and develop sports ".

Lawyer Pham Thanh Thuy, representative of K+, said that copyright infringement occurs from all livestream platforms to Facebook and even imported TV Boxes.

"No one is a stranger to Xoi Lac and Motchhill , the two biggest websites for streaming pirated football and movies today," Ms. Thuy said, citing a report from SimilarWeb that shows Vietnam currently has more than 200 websites streaming pirated movies, attracting 120 million views per month. "This is a number that FPT Play or K+ will never be able to compete with."

According to the lawyer, these channels even recklessly attack government websites, such as Xoi Lac TV, which also inserts hidden copyright-infringing links into websites with the .gov extension.

According to experts, the source of income for these sites comes from advertising gambling and spreading malware, which are illegal acts. However, blocking websites is no longer effective in the copyright war. "On average, it takes at least two days to file a lawsuit to block a website, while it only takes two minutes for criminals to change the name to another site," said lawyer Thuy.

Therefore, domestic enterprises propose to block not only domain names but also IP ranges. This is also a method applied by many countries in the world to combat copyright problems.

The representative of the Ministry of Information and Communications said that besides fighting copyright infringement, raising public awareness is also especially important. When broadcasting live, stations and businesses can incorporate slogans and messages, calling on users to boycott illegal websites.

Vnexpress.net