Literary, art circles delighted at VN's joining Berne Convention
Literary, art circles delighted at Viet Nam's joining copyright convention
10/27/2004 -- 20:37(GMT+7)
Ha Noi (VNA) - The majority of the literary and art circles in Viet Nam were enthusiastic about the country's joining the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works on Oct. 26, said Vu Manh Chu, Head of the Culture and Information Ministry's Literary-Art Copyright Department.
Director of the Viet Nam Music Copyright Protection Centre Pho Duc Phuong, himself a composer, said: "We are really happy at this good news. The Berne Convention protects the right to literary and artistic works, so we think this is an extremely important guarantee for our creativeness."
Nguyen Phan Hach, Director of the Viet Nam Writers Association's Publishing House, said that the implementation of the Berne Convention will help curb the uncontrolled publication of low-quality translated works and increase the number of translated books of high value.
Viet Nam is the 156th member of the Berne Convention, and thus, is obliged to protect the copyright for both domestic and convention member countries' authors and vice versa.
According to Chu, the Berne Convention was translated into Vietnamese in 1995 and its Vietnamese version has been republished many times. Viet Nam, with help from the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), has also held numerous training courses and seminars on copyright protection. Vietnamese experts have been sent to Berne member countries to study the implementation of the convention.
Two copyright protection centres have been set up in the country for music and literature and the Viet Nam Photography Copyright Centre will make its debut next year.
Chu hoped that other Berne member countries will help Viet Nam effectively implement the convention. Many famous authors and a number of international organisations have permitted Viet Nam to publish their works, Chu added.
