A law suit in the US involving Vietnam highlights the international nature of IPR issues. Zing.vn is an online portal which provides news, music, social media services and is also a platform for games, instant messaging and online payments. It has been hugely successful in Vietnam and among overseas Vietnamese. However it has had its share of IP problems. See here for earlier reports of IP problems.
Lang Van a US music company with a large
catalogue of Vietnamese music, has filed a lawsuit against Boston based International
Data Group, IDG Ventures Vietnam (a subsidiary) and VNG which operates the site
Zing.vn. Lang Van alleges that Zing.vn had over 3000 pirated music files on its
website. Zing.vn's business model is to offer
content for free to generate traffic and so advertising and other revenues. Lang
Van had sought takedowns repeatedly and payment of royalities without results.
The lawsuit was filed in the US and targets
IDG as the venture capital fund which invested in Zing.vn. It alleges that “the U.S.-based fund ... directly
contributed to the exponential growth of Zing.vn’s website as well as the
launch of the Zing Music website, bringing expertise, guidance and financial
backing to help VNG grow its business.” As such
they should be jointly liable. This is a novel approach to stopping the infringement, meaning VC backers of IT start ups will need to be more careful in future.
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