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Hanoi faces battle to implement pact against copycats

After decades of communist rule, intellectual property is still an alien concept

Nguyen Van Thang flips another page of the American computer-programming textbook, presses the open book to the glass of the photocopy machine and hits the button.

A few hundred repetitions and some quick binding later, he has another illicit copy for a customer.

About 10 shops on Hanoi's Nguyen Phong Sac Street do exactly the same thing every day.

There are hundreds more around the city, and thousands more like them throughout Vietnam. Each will crank out hundreds of copies a day of all kinds of books - fiction and non-fiction, domestic and foreign.

Meanwhile, the copy-mad culture also extends to pirating audio CDs, computer software and numerous other copyrighted works.

So what is the Hanoi government doing signing on to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, which ostensibly took effect in Vietnam last month, requiring it to respect all international copyrights?

It is setting itself a monumental challenge, observers agree, especially since many of the clientele at the copy shops are state employees. 'Most of our customers are government officials,' Mr Thang said. 'They usually want copies of textbooks and technical documents.'

The copying craze has deep roots in Vietnamese culture. In part, the practice is believed to stem from the communist government's ideology: works should be the property of the people rather than the elite few who create them. So the concept of copyright is still new and not widely understood.

'One of the critical factors is education aimed at changing public perceptions,' said Nguyen Hong Hai, a specialist in intellectual property at Pham & Associates law firm in Hanoi.

On a more practical level, few can afford to pay the full price for originals in a country where the average annual income is US$500. Pirated books, software and DVDs can all be had for a few dollars or less.

The cost is especially an issue with computer software. Vietnam sees the spread of technology as critical to its economic development, but it would occur at a snail's pace if Vietnamese had to pay US$100 for an operating system on every computer.

Still, the government has no choice but to forge ahead. One of Vietnam's top priorities is to join the World Trade Organisation, which it hopes to do as soon as next year. Respect for intellectual property rights is among its many new obligations.

As a result, a new domestic law on intellectual property is nearing completion.

The Vietnam Writers' Association has set up a special centre aimed at protecting its members' rights.

A Vietnamese company last month signed a copyright agreement with a Singapore-based publisher for the rights to an English-language textbook, the first deal of its kind in Vietnam.

For the foreseeable future, though, the photocopy machines will remain busy.

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