Vietnam has taken the first step towards provision for copyright protection. At present this will be of limited help to foreigners since protection is granted only to works of Vietnamese nationals or works of foreigners which are published in Vietnam within 30 days of first publication in the author's home country. The law does, however, provide that, if and when Vietnam joins the Berne or Universal Copyright Conventions, protection will be afforded to foreigners on the basis of these conventions.

In order to secure protection under the law registration is required with the Ministry of Culture. As yet regulations for obtaining such registrations have not been promulgated.

The term of protection will be 50 years from the author's death. Exemptions are set out in the law permitting use of a copyrighted work including a general provision permitting, inter alia, copying for private use, quotations when teaching, translations into the language of an ethnic minority, making copies of the work for libraries or archives quoting the work in periodicals or in broadcast programs or in preparing Braille versions of the work.