Vietnam collected VND23.3 billion (US$1.3 million) in copyright fees last year, 10-15 percent of which went to foreign authors, the Vietnam Center for Protection of Music Copyrights (VCPMC) said.

The total was huge compared to the VND15 billion ($812,347) collected in 2008, VCPMC Director Pho Duc Phuong said at a meeting on Saturday in Ho Chi Minh City.

Since the center’s establishment eight years ago, it has collected nearly VND55 billion ($2.9 million) in copyright fees to repay to original authors, Phuong noted.

Dinh Trung Can, director of VCPMC’s southern office, said the center would give priority to the collection of copyright fees at karaoke rooms this year.

Also from this year, VCPMC would cut down its copyright fee collection charges from 25 percent to 20 percent in the fields of performance, ringtones, and online music, according to the center.

The charges for the fields of recording and books would be 5 percent and 15 percent respectively, while others would remain 25 percent, the center said.

VCPMC now represents 1,602 Vietnamese authors and over 2.5 million international authors under cooperative agreements with foreign music copyright protection organizations.

Source: Tuoi Tre