Digital Media Association speaks out about 3,000 Wolfoo videos being deleted by YouTube

Sconect staff are designing characters in the animation.

On July 28, 2023, Sconnect, the owner of the Wolfoo cartoon character series, sent a petition to Vietnamese authorities to support YouTube in stopping accepting baseless copyright claims from Entertainment One UK Limited in the United Kingdom - abbreviated as eOne or EO (owner of Peppa Pig), and requested YouTube to restore more than 3,000 Wolfoo videos that had been removed from the platform.

Immediately after Sconnect sent a petition for help, on August 2, 2023, VDCA Chairman Nguyen Minh Hong signed a document to the following agencies: Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information (Ministry of Information and Communications), Department of Copyright (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), Department of Intellectual Property (Ministry of Science and Technology), National Competition Commission, requesting to review related documents in the copyright dispute between the two cartoon characters Wolfoo and Peppa Pig to support and protect Vietnamese businesses in the digital environment.

At the same time, VDCA also requested the State management agency to request Google/YouTube and intermediary platform service providers to carefully and objectively review the records, comply with current Vietnamese laws, and avoid causing damage to Vietnamese businesses while waiting for the court's decision on the lawsuit filed by the parties.

On the same day, VDCA sent a document to Google, requesting to carefully review the dispute, stop deleting and blocking Sconnect's Wolfoo video, and not cause damage to Vietnamese businesses while waiting for the court's verdict being sued by the parties.

The document sent by VDCA to Google stated that, through the content of the report and recommendations of Sconnect, VDCA found that the copyright dispute between the two units, Sconnect and EO, had been going on for a long time, with little progress to end the case, significantly affecting the production and business activities of Sconnect. The removal and deletion of more than 3,000 Wolfoo videos from the YouTube platform based solely on EO's copyright report was not in accordance with the current legal procedures of Vietnam, based on Article 114 of Decree 17/2023/ND-CP.

VDCA believes that Sconnect has followed the correct procedures for providing a notice requesting objection to the temporary removal or blocking of access to digital information content, along with supporting documents and evidence. In addition, Sconnect has filed a lawsuit against EO at the Hanoi People's Court.

“The Court has accepted and is in the process of resolving the case, but the intermediary service provider YouTube is still deleting and blocking Sconnect’s videos. This shows that YouTube has not complied with Vietnamese law,” VDCA’s document sent to Google stated.

VDCA always supports Vietnamese enterprises in their production and business activities in compliance with Vietnamese law and international laws and conventions that Vietnam has participated in, and therefore requires international enterprises to comply with the laws of the host country when doing business in Vietnam. In the field of digital content creation in Vietnam, units need to conduct fair competition activities, comply with the provisions of Decree 17/2023/ND-CP dated April 26, 2023 of the Government, detailing a number of articles and measures to implement the Law on Intellectual Property on Copyright and related rights.

Sharing with VietNamNet , a representative of the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information said that the Department had received a document from Sconnect asking for help regarding this issue.

Overview of the copyright dispute between Wolfoo and Peppa Pig

Since early 2022, Entertainment One (UK) - abbreviated as eOne or EO - has been engaged in copyright disputes over the Wolfoo character set on the YouTube platform. Accordingly, EO has continuously made baseless copyright claims, causing YouTube to delete many Wolfoo videos. Since January 2022, EO has filed a lawsuit against Sconnect in courts in the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom.

In Russia, in July 2022, the Moscow Court ruled that Wolfoo did not infringe copyright and prevented EO from suing over similar content. In November 2022, the Russian Court ruled that EO must pay Sconnect part of the lawsuit costs.

In the UK, the UK High Court is currently hearing the case and has not yet come to trial.

In Vietnam, Sconnect sued EO in two lawsuits at the Hanoi People's Court from August 2022. Up to now, the Hanoi Court is handling the lawsuit and has not yet brought it to trial.

Sconnect sued EO at the National Competition Commission of Vietnam and the Commission is reviewing the content of the dispute, initially determining that EO and YouTube have signs of violating the Competition Law.

Sconnect filed administrative complaints with state agencies including the Copyright Office and the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information. The two agencies have reviewed the file. Since October 2022, the two departments have responded in writing to YouTube requesting that it not accept EO's copyright complaints, not delete or block Wolfoo videos while the courts are handling them, and comply with Vietnamese law.

The dispute has lasted for nearly 2 years, and no court has yet declared Wolfoo guilty of copyright infringement. Sconnect has an advantage as the Russian court has ruled that Wolfoo did not infringe and ordered the plaintiff, EO, to pay compensation.

Since July 2023, EO has continued to copyright some background images and some exclamation sounds in Wolfoo films, leading to YouTube deleting more than 3,000 Wolfoo videos. Despite efforts to appeal and complain to YouTube, Sconnect has not received a response. On July 28, 2023, Sconnect once again sent a written report and requested Vietnamese State agencies to intervene and protect Vietnamese intellectual products that are being unfairly competed on YouTube.

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