Music intellectual property

In recent decades, the concept of music’s intellectual property infringement in Vietnam has gained in popularity for its adverse effects on the music industry’s development. Although some free users consider copying off music on the Internet as the contribution to artists’ fame, this behavior is one kind of stealing other works. In order to minimize the phenomenon that listeners take music for granted, strong methods should be put into action.

There are many reasons why free downloading acts as a deterrent for entertainment development. First, human in life has to adhere to one principle called trade-off. Throughout centuries, our ancestors hunted animals, raised plants to survive, which means that they traded off working for their existence. Therefore, human in civil world has no reason to enjoy other works without paying. In reality, if one person desires an Iphone 7, he or she has to pay thousand dollars to own it. Like an Iphone, a song is a product required hard working and intensive efforts to create it, therefore, listeners need to pay for their private uses. In addition, purchasing for music is one way for the listeners to respect the artists. As singers or composers are not machines, they need basic materials such as food, cloth and accommodation for their lives. Otherwise, they will run out of energy and motivation to continue devoting.

Copyright violation in music leads to serious problems in music’s development. Nowadays, even in developed countries, numbers of artists move to their careers to another due to lacks of money for basic needs. In Vietnam, many well-known singers who have series of immortal songs and contribute their whole lives for music live in poor condition when they have already retired because beside the money from their performances in shows, they receive nothing from music copyright’s patents. In the near future, with the continuity of music’s copyright violation, people in general will put an end to creation and arts.

Nevertheless, some dos and don’ts can be put into practice to reverse this position. First, the government should issue innovative copyright lawsuits to protect the artists’ rights. For example, hackers and music pages that deliberately utilize non-paid songs should be at least fined or banned in Internet community. Finally, spreading messages to music listeners is another approach for patent’s obstacles.

In conclusion, music is an intellectual product and artists have their own rights to protect their works. Any behaviors of violation are not acceptable for that they will inevitably lay negative impacts on artist in term of basic rights and respect. Being aware of artists’ devotion and punishing people who stretch the rules are keys to hopeful perspective for music industry, in Vietnam as well as in the whole world.