On April 19, 2014, FBNC TV channel had an interview with Lawyer Le Quang Vy on sharing legal views on the correlation and application between Decree 61/2002/ND-CP Date June 11, 2002 Regarding the royalty regime (“Decree 61”) and the 2005 Intellectual Property Law, as amended and supplemented in 2009 (“IP Law”).
Recently, public opinion is heating up about the controversial music copyright fee payment incident between the organizer of the music performance program of singer Khanh Ly on August 2, 2014 and the Center for Protection of Rights. Vietnamese Music Author (“VCPMC”).
Lawyer Vy shared: “A general principle in the IP Law is to create a legal corridor for the author, the user of the work and the beneficiary notary to balance the interests between these three subjects. In addition, Decree 61 also clearly states on this issue, in fact, the organization of a television program, art performance program is often invested with a very high budget, along with the process of applying for a license and implementation is still difficult for the organizers, therefore, Lawyer Vy believes that VCPMC should be right from the organizer’s perspective to understand and share more.
Is it required by law for the Organizer to deduct 15 to 20 percent of the revenue to compensate the author for the work used in the production?
To answer this question, the representative of the law office – Lawyer Vy once again emphasized: Decree 61 was born in 2002, at this time we do not have an IP Law, so it can be seen that Decree 61 mentioned that a chapter of guidance on copyright in the Civil Code is quite outdated compared to the IP Law, while the IP Law clearly stipulates that the use of works requires permission and must pay remuneration to the author according to the law.
Thus, Decree 61 stipulates the calculation of royalties on revenue, while the program has not taken place, it may make it difficult for the Organizer to determine the right royalty fee in reality, this has not yet been unified application, there exists a “warp” between Decree 61 and the Intellectual Property Law.
Suggestions on how to calculate the copyright fee of Lawyer Vy
Lawyer Vy said that copyright is a civil matter, a voluntary agreement, according to the will of the parties. However, in order to have a uniform application and ensure the general order of society, competent state agencies should issue clearer regulations to ensure the application of the most standard regulation. The lawyer added, it is more reasonable to consider how the royalty fee will be calculated on a percentage of the organizer’s investment, rather than on the revenue, so the fee can be guaranteed. The author’s copyright is proportional to the scale and investment budget of the organizer when performing a performance program.
FBNC (Finance Business News Corporation) is a news – financial television channel for domestic and foreign businesses.
