What rights do musicians have over their musical works in Vietnam?

Hello, Lawnet would like to answer as follows:

1. What is musical work?

According to the provisions of Point d, Clause 1, Article 14 of the Law on Intellectual Property 2005, musical works are one of the types of artistic works protected by copyright.

Referring to Clause 4, Article 6 of Decree 17/2023/ND-CP, "Musical works specified under Point d Clause 1 Article 14 of the Law on Intellectual Property are works that are expressed in form of notes in a musical arrangement or other music symbols regardless whether they are performed or not."

Musical works are protected by copyright from the moment they are created in a recordable form in physical form. The form of recording can be on paper, typewritten, or another form of recording. Thus, when the musician only thinks about the lyrics in his head but has not yet expressed them in physical form, the music is not protected by copyright.

2. What rights do musicians have over their musical works in Vietnam?

According to Article 18 of the Law on Intellectual Property 2005, copyright includes moral rights and economic rights, which means that for their musical works, the author will have moral rights and economic rights.

+ In case the musician is the sole owner of the work

Article 37 of theLaw on Intellectual Property 2005 stipulates: "Authors who use their own time, finance and material or technical facilities to create works shall have the moral rights stipulated in article 19 and the economic rights stipulated in article 20 of this Law."

Pursuant to Article 14 of Decree 17/2023/ND-CP and Clause 5, Article 1 of the Law amending Law on Intellectual Property 2022, musicians have the following rights:

First, moral rights of authors include :

- The right to name their works does not apply to works translated from one language to another. The naming of the works must not violate regulations.

- The right to have their real names or pseudonyms attached to their works applies even when their works are used for derivative works. When authors' works are published or used for derivative works, real names or pseudonyms of the authors must be specified.

- The right to publish their works or permit other persons to publish their works is the issuing of copies of the works in any format in a reasonable quantity for public access depending on the nature of the works by authors or copyright holders or other individuals, organizations with consent of the authors or copyright holders.

- The right to protect the integrity of their works; and to forbid other persons to modify, edit or distort their works in whatever form, causing harm to the honor and reputation of the author.

Second, economic rights of authors include:

- The right to create derivative works;

- The right to publicly perform their works, whether directly or via audio and video recordings or any technological devices, at a location that is publicly accessible but the public cannot select the time and part of the works.

- The right to directly or indirectly reproduce the entire or part of the work using any means or form, except for the cases specified in Point a Clause 3 of Article 20 of the Law on Intellectual Property 2005, amended in 2022;

- The right to distribute, import for public distribution by sale, or transfer of other rights to ownership of the original or copies of their works in tangible forms;

- The right to broadcast, communicate to the public their works by wireless or wired devices, electronic information networks or other technical means, including the provision of their works to the public in a manner that it can be accessed by the public at their time and location of choice;

+ In case the musician is assigned to write music or has an agreement in a cooperation contract to write music for another organization or individual (the author is not also the owner of the work)

Based on Article 39 of the Law on Intellectual Property 2005, the author, who is not the owner of the work, has moral rights (except for the right to publish the product according to Clause 3, Article 19 of the Law on Intellectual Property 2005, amended in 2022).

Contact Article 14 of Decree 17/2023/ND-CP Musicians who create musical works have the following rights:

- The right to name their works does not apply to works translated from one language to another. The naming of the works must not violate regulations.

- The right to have their real names or pseudonyms attached to their works applies even when their works are used for derivative works. When authors' works are published or used for derivative works, real names or pseudonyms of the authors must be specified.

- The right to publish their works or permit other persons to publish their works is the issuing of copies of the works in any format in a reasonable quantity for public access depending on the nature of the works by authors or copyright holders or other individuals, organizations with consent of the authors or copyright holders.

If the musician and the other party have a different agreement, the musician's rights to the work will be exercised according to the agreement in the contract.

Thus, the musician will have moral and property rights regarding his musical work if he is the sole author of that work. On the other hand, if an organization or individual hires a musician to write a musical work, the musician's rights to the musical work are exercised according to the rental contract. If there is no agreement, the musician has certain rights. moral rights of the work according to the law.

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