HA NOI — Thousands of musical performances take place annually nationwide without composers or musicians receiving royalties for the copyrighted works, complained participants in a meeting here on Thursday, held to gather comment on the effectiveness of regulations governing peformances and festivals.
"Only two per cent of the shows held each year in Ha Noi use musical works with permission," said composer Pho Duc Phuong. "Concerned agencies should authorise performances only if show organisers have sought permission from copyright holders and properly paid royalties."
Representatives from 63 arts and cultural agencies gathered in Thursday's meeting to offer comment on Ministry of Culture and Information's Regulation No 47 (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism) and offer proposals for reforms.
The regulation was issued in July 2004 to faciliate the performing arts, said the deputy head of the ministry's performing arts department, Vuong Duy Bien. After six years in effect, however, the regulation needed to be revised to more accurately reflect current social development and bring into full play the State's administration of the performing arts, Bien said.
The regulation overlaped in many respects with provisions in the Law on Intellectual Property, noted other participants at the meeting.
The meeting also discussed the use of lip-syncing instead of live vocals at shows presented as ‘live' peformances.
"It is difficult to inspect for and catch lip-syncing in these shows due to the increasingly modern audio equipment used," said Vo Trong Nam, head of the arts section of HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Resolution No 103 of January 1, 2010, imposing fines on improper actions in fields of culture and information, had not much helped improve the problem, Nam said. That resolution sets fines of VND2-5 million (US$100-250) on lip-syncing and using recorded music at shows advertised as live performances.
Nam urged the ministry to keep a closer watch on the shows and censor them prior to authorising the peformances.
A representative from the southern province of Khanh Hoa also suggested that, in order to more strictly control the behaviour of performing artists, the ministry should add a new regulation requiring the issuances of permits only to working artists with proper talent.
But Le Ngoc Cuong, former head of the Department of Performing Arts, said such measures would not be effective if the root causes of the problems were not unearthed.
Cuong suggested the ministry consider the qualifications of show organisers carefully from the moment they register for business licences. In reality, limited companies with only two founding members had registered to operate in 48 different fields, leading to today's chaos, he said.
Pham Phu Phuc, a ministry cultural inspector, said that fines and other penalties should be more severe and cover shows organised overseas without State permission.
Contributions of participants at the meeting would be considered by the Department of Performing Arts in revising Regulation No 47 over the next few months, the department said. — VNS