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Singers, wearing T-shirts that urge people to "Listen responsibly" as part of a campaign to combat online piracy in Vietnam, perform at a talent show in Ho Chi Minh City earlier this month. Photo: AP

In Vietnam, US adopts friendly approach to web pirates

With diplomacy options limited in Vietnam, the embassy has adopted a softer approach to fight

Internet

It's a wildly popular website laden with unlicensed songs and Hollywood movies, a prime exhibit of the digital piracy that is strangling the music industry in Asia and eroding legitimate online sales around the world.

The free-to-download bonanza has pushed Vietnam's Zing.vn into the ranks of the globe's top 550 websites. But a few clicks inside the site reveal a surprising presence: the US government, which maintains a bustling social media account there.

Washington is a vocal proponent of intellectual property rights in Vietnam as it is around the world, and a site like Zing would be shut down in the United States. But with space for public diplomacy limited in communist Vietnam, the American embassy uses its "Zingme" account to reach out to young people in the country as it seeks to build closer ties.

The embassy's presence shows just how mainstream pirate sites have become in Vietnam, where the government does nothing to stop them operating. But it also raises questions whether Washington is legitimising a renowned pirate site that record labels, singers and industry groups say ignores requests that it take down infringing material.

Coca-Cola and Samsung pulled their advertising from the site earlier this month because of piracy concerns following questions by the Associated Press. The move challenged Zing's business model and was praised by recording industry groups. Samsung said last week it was closing its Zingme account for the same reason.

The embassy said it recognised the concerns for US copyright interests posed by Zing. But it believes contact with the website's users could reduce traffic or infringing activity that takes place on it.

The mission sometimes uses its Zingme page to post about copyright infringement.

Its statement noted that the site had removed, at its request, the link to infringing material that appears on other Zingme pages as a matter of course. It noted too its lack of options in a country where the government controls the media, saying "there were few spaces for public discourse and intermittent access to Facebook", referring to a block the government sometimes puts on the social networking site.

But not everyone thinks engaging with Zing is the right thing to do. "Here we are as an American company trying to set things right with one of the biggest pirates in Vietnam, but the US embassy is essentially showing its support by being on its site," said Mimi Nguyen, an American who has been trying fruitlessly for a year to get Zing to take down some 10,000 songs owned by her family's business.

"It is really sad to find out the embassy is using their platform."

The Recording Industry Association of America - which praised the decision by Samsung and Coke to withdraw from Zing and has labelled Zing a "notorious" pirate site - said it was neither endorsing nor criticising the embassy's strategy.

Neil Turkewitz, a senior vice-president at the association, said he imagined the embassy had tried to balance the ability to target a tech-savvy demographic with anti-piracy messages against the appearance of a connection between it and the site.

"My guess is that it wasn't an easy decision," he said.

In Vietnam, inaction by a government that sees no political upside in cracking down on what many see as a victimless crimes has pushed the industry to the point of collapse.

Zing is seen as the main enemy by those who speak out against its effective stranglehold over the country's music industry.

"Zing is destroying the industry and they know it," said record producer Quoc Trung, who is leading a campaign against online piracy. "We need people to pay for music, not just click on it. It is now or never."

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: U.S. woos, not sues, web pirates
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