Online streaming or providing webcast of music or movies starts becoming popular in Vietnam. This could raise some interesting points from copyright law perspective. A broadcaster under the Intellectual Property Law may broadcast music without obtaining approval of the relevant right holders as long as the broadcaster pay certain royalty fees to the copyright holder. It is not clear if a provider of online streaming or webcast of music or movies could qualify as a broadcaster under the Intellectual Property Law. This is because:

• “Broadcasting” is defined as the transmission of sound or image or both sound and image of a work, performance, audio and visual recording or broadcast to the public by wireless or landline means including satellite transmission, in such a way that the public may access such work from any place and time the public select. It is not clear if the delivery of a musical recording through the internet could qualify as the transmission of a recording by wireless or landline means. The Intellectual Property Law seems to distinguish the internet from wireless or landline means. However, Decree 100 seems to consider the internet as a part of wireless or landline means; and

• Broadcasting organisation is defined as the organisation which initiates and carries out broadcasting. In the case of on-demand music service, it is not clear whether the service provider or the end-user could be considered as the organisation which initiates the broadcast.