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| Nokia, FPT Online deny music copyright violations |
| 31-OCT-2008 Intellasia | Saigon Times Daily page 1 |
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| 31 Oct, 2008 - 7:09:02 AM |
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Nokia and FPT Online on Tuesday denied allegations that they had violated Vietnam's copyright law as accused on Monday by the Recording Industry Association of Vietnam (RIAV).
RIAV called a press conference on Monday announcing to file a lawsuit against Nokia and FPT Online because the two companies are using music for commercial purposes without permission from local producers who are members of RIAV.
The association said FPT Online was using various music products of local studios and broadcasting them on its internet Protocol Television (IPTV) without paying a penny to music producers.
In August this year, FPT Online and Nokia inked a deal to provide 1,000 music versions and installed 3,347 Will connection sites in Hanoi and HCM City.
Under the deal, buyers of Nokia Xpressmusic series will be given vouchers to download free music from FPT Online's website at http://mp3.nhacso.net/nokia.
On Tuesday, Nokia and FPT said they had not violated the copyright law as claimed by RIAV.
Nokia said in a statement on Tuesday that Nokia was seriously considering the association's allegations and was discussing with RIA V to look into the issue.
"Nokia has explained it does not own FPT Online's website, nor manage digital content there. Thus, it asked FPT to work with the association over this issue," Nokia said.
Nguyen Ngoc Long, chief editor of nhacSo.net and director of communication centre of FPT Online told the Daily that his company had not received any official documents from Ben Thanh and Phuong Nam Film who are members of RIAV. Thus, he declined to comment.
"However, it needs to emphasize that FPT Online doesn't establish a music website for Nokia. The website http://mp3.nhacso.net/nokia is owned by FPT Online to provide music download service and our clients can purchase FPT cards to download music. Nokia only implemented a promotion programme by buying FPT Online's cards and gifts to Nokia customers. It is a normal promotion campaign," Long noted.
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