Thaiexpat TV: British man receives biggest ever fine for running illegal streaming service in Thailand

[webfact]

Thaiexpat TV: British man receives biggest ever fine for running illegal streaming service in Thailand

 

 

A British man and a Thai woman have been charged with copyright infringement for running an illegal TV streaming service.

 

Those charged were found to be running the online service, as well as selling Android boxes preloaded with software that enabled people to watch pirated broadcasts of English Premier League football matches. 

 

The pair were charged with infringing the English Premier League’s (EPL) copyright in Thailand and have been ordered to pay 15 million baht in fines, while 7 million baht of funds seized by the DSI will also be kept by the state.

 

The suspects also received a total of three and a half years suspended prison sentences and ordered to pay an additional 3 million baht in fines related to running the illegal operation from Thailand.

 

The total amount of fines is believed to be the biggest ever paid for copyright infringement in Thailand. 

 

The case brought about by the English Premier League (EPL) working in conjunction with Thailand’s Department of Special Investigations.

 

The initial arrests were made back in May 2017, when police raided several properties in Bangkok, which were used to run the ‘365 Sport’ streaming service, as well as Thaiexpat.tv, Hkexpat.tv, Inoexpat.tv, Vietexpat.tv and Euroexpat.tv.  

 

Following the raids, two British men and a Thai woman were arrested. The two Britons were later released on bail at the request of the British Embassy. 

 

Thaivisa understands one of the men later fled Thailand and remains on the run. A warrant has been issued for his arrest, as well as for several other people who are suspected of being involved in the illegal streaming operation.

 

“This is one of the most substantial compensations for piracy-related crimes in Thailand and is a stark warning to anyone involved in the illegal supply of Premier League streams,” said Kevin Plumb, the director of legal services at the Premier League.

 

“Attitudes towards, and acceptance of, these types of operators in Asia are changing, which is good news for fans who watch Premier League content through legitimate channels. Those who don’t should be aware that subscribing to services run by organised crime gangs means they risk, not just the content disappearing when the service gets disrupted by legal action, but also exposing themselves to the threat of fraud and malware."

 

“We are committed to pursuing all those involved in providing illegal access to our content and are grateful to the Courts and the public prosecutor for acknowledging and supporting the importance of fighting piracy. Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation is one of the leading anti-piracy forces we work with and we thank them and the public prosecutor for their support in prosecuting this case.”

 

Meanwhile, Pol Col Phaisit Wongmeuang said there were many cases of Thailand being used as a base for copyright infringements still under investigation. 

 

The action against the three defendants was part of Thai government and justice ministry actions regarding the digital economy and piracy. 

 

Many Thai and foreign companies have been hit by the piracy, he said. 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2019-12-03

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[cornishcarlos]

Its a silly game anyway ????

[Matzzon]

50 minutes ago, webfact said:

The pair were charged with infringing the English Premier League’s (EPL) copyright in Thailand and have been ordered to pay 15 million baht in fines, while 7 million baht of funds seized by the DSI will also be kept by the state.

Yippie! Good times are back! Now there´s gonna be a lot of police that suddenly have free Premier League.

[3421abc]

Me thinks the fine would have been a lot lower if both were Thai citizens. 

[from the home of CC]

So the UK embassy requested bail for this guy who then ran away. First the country allows criminals to leave it's shores to pollute other countries and now they aid and abet a national to avoid prosecution. I'd be leery to believe anything they say going forward

[overherebc]

I still believe the idea that once the games are finished and broadcast on the TV in UK they become part of the public domain. Anyone should then be able to watch them the next day and after however they like from a recording. Independant tv makes it's money from advertising and and football teams make their money from fees paid by tv companies, gate prices and royalties from shirts etc being sold.

Once it's been broadcast in UK that should be the end of payments on it to the club and the tv companies. Should fair game for anyone else.

[PremiumLane]

21 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

So the UK embassy requested bail for this guy who then ran away. First the country allows criminals to leave it's shores to pollute other countries and now they aid and abet a national to avoid prosecution. I'd be leery to believe anything they say going forward

calm down, do you know he was a criminal when he left its shores? They didn't aid and abet him, they helped him get bail, there is a massive difference between the two.

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

while 7 million baht of funds seized by the DSI will also be kept by the state.

Never keep more money than you immediately need in Thailand.

Without the 7M, they probably wouldn't have bothered with the arrests.

[NanLaew]

35 minutes ago, 3421abc said:

Me thinks the fine would have been a lot lower if both were Thai citizens. 

Least credible invocation of Thai dual-pricing post of the day award goes to...

[from the home of CC]

11 minutes ago, PremiumLane said:

calm down, do you know he was a criminal when he left its shores? They didn't aid and abet him, they helped him get bail, there is a massive difference between the two.

I was speaking to two other Brits who were wanted in the UK and were allowed just to walk away and commit crimes here. By helping him in getting bail they DID aid and abet him, and to me it's apparent that the government is getting totally dysfunctional on a lot of different fronts.. 

[Andrew65]

21 minutes ago, overherebc said:

I still believe the idea that once the games are finished and broadcast on the TV in UK they become part of the public domain. Anyone should then be able to watch them the next day and after however they like from a recording. Independant tv makes it's money from advertising and and football teams make their money from fees paid by tv companies, gate prices and royalties from shirts etc being sold.

Once it's been broadcast in UK that should be the end of payments on it to the club and the tv companies. Should fair game for anyone else.

When I were a lad in the UK it was possible to see boxing (Ali etc), either live, or at least highlights. I still like boxing to this day.

I doubt that many kids nowadays get to see the sport as we did when I was young, pay per view/money etc being the problem.

[overherebc]

15 minutes ago, Andrew65 said:

When I were a lad in the UK it was possible to see boxing (Ali etc), either live, or at least highlights. I still like boxing to this day.

I doubt that many kids nowadays get to see the sport as we did when I was young, pay per view/money etc being the problem.

Advertising pulls the money strings nowadays.

And the idea of ad's every 15 minutes has raised the populations with a 15 minute attention span.

Have you seen the price asked on one just to watch one F1 race?

[kevin612]

when an expat involves with such incidents, Thai government will charge you more. Remember last week the topless restaurant waitresses, they were charged only 6000 baht if I remember correctly.

[Chazar]

2 hours ago, cornishcarlos said:

Its a silly game anyway ????

an  overpaid silly  game

[Thian]

1 hour ago, 3421abc said:

Me thinks the fine would have been a lot lower if both were Thai citizens. 

We had 3 different tv-boxes to see satellite tv in thailand....all illegals ones.

[brewsterbudgen]

44 minutes ago, overherebc said:

I still believe the idea that once the games are finished and broadcast on the TV in UK they become part of the public domain. Anyone should then be able to watch them the next day and after however they like from a recording. Independant tv makes it's money from advertising and and football teams make their money from fees paid by tv companies, gate prices and royalties from shirts etc being sold.

Once it's been broadcast in UK that should be the end of payments on it to the club and the tv companies. Should fair game for anyone else.

This is all about "live" broadcasting rights.  The rights to broadcast games after they're finished are much less expensive and infringements rarely enforced.  

[Yinn]

1 hour ago, 3421abc said:

Me thinks the fine would have been a lot lower if both were Thai citizens. 

Be lower if his friend not escape. 

Good friend. Or not?

[KhunFred]

1 hour ago, from the home of CC said:

So the UK embassy requested bail for this guy who then ran away. First the country allows criminals to leave it's shores to pollute other countries and now they aid and abet a national to avoid prosecution. I'd be leery to believe anything they say going forward

The UK is well aware that Thai law is stacked against non-Thai nationals and simply refuses to do business with a non-democratic military government. A very principled way of reacting, in my opinion.

[worgeordie]

Everything reported, except the most important part,their names.

regards Worgeordie

[sapson]

A lot of kerfuffle, when you can watch all premiership games live on many streaming sites on the net.

 

I have watched all my teams games for the last three years on a live stream without joining or credit card details etc from a site freely available on the net.... one of so many.

[Andrew65]

22 minutes ago, overherebc said:

Advertising pulls the money strings nowadays.

And the idea of ad's every 15 minutes has raised the populations with a 15 minute attention span.

Have you seen the price asked on one just to watch one F1 race?

No I haven't although I live back in the UK now.

 

I was an F1 fan during the Mansell/Prost years when it was on the BBC, not so much in recent times.

 

Mr Mansell's still a sporting hero for me, held the F1 & IndyCar titles at the same time.

[Guderian]

The whole world should be grateful that Thailand is such a respectful, international law-abiding, intellectual property-respecting, completely non-corrupt country, and always ready to pounce on the evil farangs.

[rtco]

So what about this lot then ... warpfootball.com ... it's Thai

[Tayaout]

45 minutes ago, sapson said:

A lot of kerfuffle, when you can watch all premiership games live on many streaming sites on the net.

 

I have watched all my teams games for the last three years on a live stream without joining or credit card details etc from a site freely available on the net.... one of so many.

That's exactly this kind of site that are illegal. They make money by puttings ads on their site. 

[Borzandy]

This job is reserved for Thais

[legend49]

So one horse has bolted. The other English dude is he married to the Thai woman , they used to run this business in Phuket and got busted. Then went to Bangkok did the same, a company that sounds like IPTV Service. Wanted 14,000 baht for a black box ready to be plugged in preloaded with thousands of sites. Problem was they took my electronic payment and never sent the box. What a surprise they got when i gave them the police report , police pending action and ultimatum to return the money. The Thai woman became very  very nasty in emails, so much so she didnt care about the BIB as she was a Thai, above the law!  The money came back to me in 3 days. But trying to get them to delete me from the mailing list went on for 12 months. Lesson learnt dont try and get something expensive on a cheap purchase.

[happy chappie]

But we must think about those poor lads who kick a bag of wind about twice a week and the loss of their income.dont forget most of these players have families and need to put food on the table for them.

[JHolmesJr]

was a number of blokes flogging similar wares over on the Thai hooker forums.

Wonder if they are still around.

[Teee]

Just pay for a VPN to watch UK tv...when im over and living for months at a time in Thailand i pay for a VPN (cyberghost) and i can pick up Sky Go...BBC iplayer etc....for £10 a month......

 

365 the site they were involved in was ok but stream was at best...terrible 

I think they streamed Movies too....again stream was no good.

[smedly]

didn't they advertise on TVF, at the time I called such services as illegal and was ignored