TO SLAY A PAPER TIGER - CLOSING THE LOOPHOLES IN VIETNAM NEW COPYRIGHT LAWS

Vietnam has a long history of ignoring copyright laws at the expense o f foreign authors of copyrighted works. In the last few years, the Vie tnamese government has attempted to strengthen ties with the United St ates and other Western nations by instituting Doi Moi, a country-wide plan of economic renovation designed to attract foreign investment. Pa rt of this plan is a revision of copyright laws intended to create an intellectual property regime conforming to international standards. Un fortunately, the latest version of the Ordinance on Copyrights and the copyright provisions of the new Civil Code have loopholes that will a llow copyright piracy to continue to flourish. Moreover, the Vietnames e government has not yet issued the regulations necessary to give lega l force to these laws. Without effective copyright laws and a commitme nt from the government to enforce them, foreign investors will continu e to view Vietnam as a dangerous trading partner. The author argues th at the Vietnamese government can establish an effective copyright syst em and facilitate the success of Doi Moi by taking two principal steps . First, the government should eliminate or substantially redraft prov isions of the Civil Code that allow unfettered censorship, protect cer tain political and cultural exploitation as ''fair use,'' and give aut hors inadequate remedies for breach of contracts on the use of copyrig hted works. At a minimum, the government should incorporate the enforc ement provisions of the TRIPS agreement into the Civil Code. In additi on, the Civil Code or its regulations should provide adequate means fo r registering copyrights and for judicial relief against infringers. M oreover, the anticipated regulations should not revive the controversi al ''Thirty-Day Rule,'' which gives less protection to foreign works t han to works created by Vietnamese authors. Second, the Vietnamese gov ernment should adopt exhaustive copyright provisions like those of the recent China-U.S. Agreements on Intellectual Property Protection. Clo sely examining China's international copyright dilemmas and its trade wars with the United States will allow Vietnam to avoid devastating tr ade wars with current and future trading partners. By putting teeth in to its copyright laws, Vietnam can transform its current paper tigers into a truly effective copyright protection scheme that can help assur e the success of Doi Moi.