The Investigation Police Agency under the municipal Public Security Department said on Aug. 5 that it had prosecuted and placed in temporary detention Nguyen Thi Hien, owner of the YouTube channel Phuong Diem Huyen, and Nguyen Thanh Hiep, Director of Unicorn Vietnam Media and Entertainment Co., Ltd., for investigation on the charge of infringing copyright and related rights under Article 225 of Vietnam's Penal Code.
Nguyen Thi Hien (2nd, R) at a police station in HCMC. Photo by police
According to the investigation, Hien cooperated with BH Media to manage the Phuong Diem Huyen YouTube channel, which has hundreds of thousands of subscribers and features thousands of Bolero and lyrical music videos.
The investigation found that she had uploaded and exploited numerous copyrighted musical works over a long period without obtaining permission from copyright holders or paying royalties as required by law. Several of the videos attracted millions of views.
According to the investigation agency, the violations caused copyright holders losses of hundreds of millions of Vietnamese dong while generating unlawful profits of hundreds of millions of dong for Hien through YouTube monetization.
