On march 10, the Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention Department of Ho Chi Minh City Police announced it had issued an administrative penalty to a 22-year-old man residing in Ho Chi Minh City for illegally disseminating a motion picture on social media for profit.

The young man working with authorities. Photo: Ho Chi Minh City Police

Earlier, on february 25, authorities received reports that the movie 'Tho oi', currently playing in cinemas, was being illegally recorded, edited, and distributed on TikTok. Through investigation, police discovered the TikTok account 'Tho oi!' (@thooi562) had posted dozens of illegally recorded video clips of the film's content. Each clip lasted from 60 to 120 seconds.

Police identified the account manager as the 22-year-old man and summoned him for questioning. He admitted to creating multiple TikTok accounts to post 45 video clips extracted from the film to increase engagement.

He also collected video segments, edited them into a complete film version, and offered them for sale via Telegram to interested individuals, receiving payments through a bank account. From february 23 until his detection, the young man had sold the film to 11 people.

The young man admitted his violations and pledged not to re-offend. For providing and sharing artistic works without the owner's consent, he was fined VND 7,5 million under Decree 15/2020/ND-CP. Additionally, authorities ordered him to remove all infringing content.

Ho Chi Minh City Police advised citizens to comply with copyright and intellectual property regulations when participating in online environments. Illegally recording, copying, and distributing films shown in cinemas can result in administrative or criminal penalties, depending on the severity of the violation.

Quoc Thang