According to the latest developments in the copyright dispute between the two cartoon characters Wolfoo (owned by Sconnect Vietnam) and Peppa Pig (owned by Entertainment One UK Limited in the United Kingdom - abbreviated as eOne or EO), on July 28, 2023, Sconnect sent a report to 4 agencies: the Copyright Office (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information (PTTH&TTĐT - Ministry of Information and Communications ), the National Competition Commission and the Vietnam Digital Communications Association (VDCA).
Sconnect's report recommends that the four agencies support discussions with Google and YouTube so that the platforms stop accepting and approving unfounded copyright requests for Wolfoo videos from EO.
Sconnect Vietnam also requested Google to respect and comply with Vietnamese law, especially Article 114 of Decree No. 17/2023/ND-CP, requiring YouTube to promptly restore more than 3,000 Wolfoo videos that have been removed from the YouTube platform.
Many restored Wolfoo channels are locked again
The copyright dispute between the two cartoon characters Wolfoo and Peppa Pig has lasted since early 2022. The two sides have been suing each other in courts in Russia, England and Vietnam.
During the dispute resolution process, since September 2022, Sconnect Vietnam has filed a complaint to 4 ministers (Ministry of Information and Communications, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Science and Technology) and the Chairman of the Vietnam Digital Communications Association (VDCA), requesting that the authorities consider and support the protection of Sconnect's legitimate rights and interests, which are being seriously violated by foreign enterprises in the digital environment, specifically on the YouTube platform.
After accepting the case and carefully reviewing Sconnect's records and reports, three agencies including the Vietnam Digital Communications Association (VDCA), the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information, and the Copyright Office sent documents to Google and YouTube.
The documents of VDCA and the two Departments have the same point of view: Requesting Google to carefully review and verify the issues that Sconnect has raised in the reports related to the complicated dispute between the two parties and no Court has yet made a final conclusion. Requesting YouTube to restore Wolfoo videos, Sconnect's YouTube channels to be deleted, locked, and blocked from posting new content until there is an official judgment from the Courts where the two parties are suing each other. Specifically, Sconnect is suing EO at the Hanoi People's Court and the Vietnam National Competition Commission. Meanwhile, EO is suing Sconnect at a court in the United Kingdom.
According to Sconnect's report, after VDCA, the Department of Broadcasting and Electronic Information and the Copyright Office spoke up, YouTube restored some locked Wolfoo videos and reopened the upload rights of 19 blocked YouTube channels of Sconnect. Thanks to that, Sconnect's difficulties on YouTube have had positive changes since the beginning of 2023, and Sconnect's business operations are gradually recovering.
However, since early July, Sconnect has continued to detect EO's behavior of abusing intellectual property rights, copyright infringement on YouTube with Wolfoo videos. Notably, Google has received and continued to block the upload rights of many YouTube channels and delete Wolfoo videos that were previously opened by YouTube.
These are violations of the provisions of Decree 17/2023/ND-CP of Vietnam. Accordingly, Google/YouTube can only delete or remove Sconnect's Wolfoo video when there is a valid judgment or decision from the court.
Sconnect denies copyright infringement allegations
Having tried every way to complain and communicate with YouTube but received no response, Sconnect once again "called for help" from VDCA, the Copyright Office, the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information and the National Competition Commission.
According to Sconnect's report, since April 2023, EO has reported copyrights to many of Sconnect's Wolfoo videos on the grounds that Sconnect used background images from Peppa Pig videos in Wolfoo videos. Although EO did not provide clear evidence of which specific content or images in which Peppa Pig videos were violated by Wolfoo videos, YouTube still removed and deleted more than 3,000 Wolfoo videos asking the platform, causing particularly serious damage to Sconnect.
In July 2023, EO reported copyrights to 18 Wolfoo videos on the grounds that Sconnect was using audio from Peppa Pig videos. The copyrighted audio videos only accounted for 1 second/video, with exclamation sounds in the characters' stories. Specifically, the sounds: "Hurray", "oh", "laughter", "wow", "huh", "hmm".
In response to EO's complaint about the copyright of background images and sounds, Sconnect affirmed that EO's copyright reporting of background images and sounds used in the Wolfoo video was baseless, for the following reasons: EO and YouTube did not provide clear evidence; it has not been clarified which specific content/sound in which Peppa Pig video the Wolfoo video infringed.
“The scenes and contexts in the Wolfoo video were all created by Sconnect staff. The sounds were recorded directly from Vietnamese voice actors. These images and sounds were created based on creative materials and principles as prescribed by Vietnamese law. Therefore, EO’s reporting of copyright infringement of the scenes, contexts, and sounds and YouTube’s acceptance of EO’s reports to delete and remove Sconnect’s Wolfoo video are baseless and illegal,” affirmed lawyer Pham Van Anh, Head of Legal Department of Sconnect.
According to lawyer Pham Van Anh, the above sounds are interjections that are easily encountered in everyday conversations and are commonly used globally. The words that create these sounds are not important components to create the content of the work, are not owned by any entity and are not subject to intellectual property protection.
Sconnect said that the company has made great efforts to inform YouTube to properly implement the platform's policies and comply with Vietnamese law in Decree 17/2023/ND-CP, however, it has not received any response from Google/YouTube.
As of July 28, 2023, Google/YouTube continues to accept EO copyright reports, copyrighting Wolfoo videos on YouTube. To date, more than 3,000 Wolfoo videos have been removed from YouTube, and the number of deleted, unrecoverable videos continues to increase.
Wolfoo videos on YouTube are the subject of a dispute in a case currently being heard by the Hanoi People's Court and the UK High Court. To date, no court has issued a decision to block/remove Wolfoo videos. Therefore, YouTube's continued blocking/removal of Wolfoo videos is in violation of Article 114 of Decree 17/2023/ND-CP.
Sharing with VietNamNet on the afternoon of July 31, a representative of the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information said that they had received a petition regarding the above issue from Sconnect.
On September 15, 2022, Sconnect Vietnam filed a lawsuit against the British enterprise Entertainment One UK Limited (“EO”), to the Hanoi People's Court, for copyright infringement of animated film works.
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