About nine pm last night i got a call from a friend in the UK as his girlfriend who is the manager of his guesthouse had been hauled off by the BIB for having one thai mp3 cd in the player.

After getting there it was established they wanted a significant amount tens times more than similar previous raids were hit for.

Seems they are getting much tougher on this type of behaviour.

Anyway the fine was negotiated to a more reasonable amount, still too much for one CD but.

Ouch - so having a dodgey cd or playing the cd was the issue?

Ouch - so having a dodgey cd or playing the cd was the issue?

playing it is what lead them in, but possesion is bad too, if they found more it would have been same money for each CD, the fine however would have been more if they had have bought them and not a customer who left them there.

This has come up a couple of times. When the authorities decide to check on rights for musicians they check all the music on the premises, CD's, music on the computer and karaoke material. The biggest irony here is that the powers that be come down VERY heavy on any perceived breach of Thai copyright, but seem not to notice the same offence when it involves artist from other countries.

The message is, if you want to offer music your staff enjoy or a genuine "ethnic" experience to your customers make sure you use genuine copies purchased from licenced resellers. The questionable compilations available in some markets may not be acceptable. Then there is the "licence" to playb/ broadcast the music.

For Thai music you need two things.

First is original cd's/dvd's.

Secondly you need a license from each publisher the cd's belongs to.

You have a cd from Grammy, you'd need a license from Grammy.

You also have a cd from Sony Thailand, then you'd also need a license from Sony Thailand....

They don't give a hoot about foreign music!!!!

Isn't this Grammy taking the law in their own hands by hiring their own mp3 goons? Where does the money from fines go?