Three Pirate Website Operators Convicted and Fined in Vietnam 

• Three pirate website owners in Vietnam were found guilty of copyright infringement last week.
• The trial occurred in July, only six months after law enforcement arrested the individuals.
• They each got suspended convictions and thousands of dollars in fines.

Three local men in Vietnam were found guilty of infringement of copyright and related rights after facing trial last week at a court new to a copyright case. They were arrested in January for operating illegal streaming websites. The trial at the People’s Court of Quang Binh province started on July 11.

The arrest announced by the Quang Binh Provincial Police Department – confirmed by state-controlled media and featured on national TV – targeted 30-year-old Phan Ngoc Tuan, a resident of Quang Binh province, on suspicion of operating pirate domains bilutvt.net, tvhayh.org, and animefull.net.

Local authorities said the suspect recruited and worked with 24-year-old Ngo Quang Huy and 25-year-old Nguyen Thanh Nhan, both from Ho Chi Minh City, via Telegram for the illegal streaming operation. The accused’s two recruits were tasked with increasing user engagement as well as downloading, editing, and distributing movies.

Back in January, the police report said Tuan had 188,322 movie files, amounting to roughly 40TB of data. 

During the trial, it was revealed that Tuan started these illegal movie-streaming sites in 2019 for advertising revenue. The three individuals were accused of illegally broadcasting 57 Vietnamese and 14 ‘foreign’ films, obtaining roughly US $106,500 via advertising.

Tuan reportedly purchased domain names, rented virtual servers, and utilized hosting space outside Vietnam to hide his tracks.

They all got suspended convictions and fines. The court sentenced Phan Ngoc Tuan to 24 months (US $78,800 fine), Ngo Quang Huy to 15 months (US $19,300 fine), and Nguyen Thanh Nhan to a 9-month sentence (US $7,250 fine).