Two media executives arrested for breaching copyright on Thai TV content

[webfact]

 

Two top executives of a media company are being detained by Department of Special Investigation (DSI) officers for alleged copyright infringements, related to the recording and rebroadcast (streaming) of several Thai Army-run TV Channel 7 programs via to Thai customers abroad, causing losses to the television station estimated at about 2.8 billion baht.

 

DSI officials are looking for six more suspects who remain at large.

 

According to the DSI, the media company, Doo TV Media, recorded and streamed, without the rights to do so, 592 Channel 7 programs, ranging from soap operas and variety shows to series and news, from 2015-2018 to its Thai customers overseas.

 

The company charged its customers US$14 per month and had set up branch offices in the United States and Britain, where there are a large number of Thai nationals.

 

Full story: Thai PBS 2023-10-26

 

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[ukrules]

Now this is hilarious. Only a few days ago I was flicking through the channels on the cable tv service I have and noticed that the new Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 movie was playing - I had already seen this movie having previously downloaded the torrent, the quality was the same - perfect.

 

They obviously download the latest torrents and put these movies on all the time and they've been doing it for many years.

 

Nobody seems to care as it still happens.

 

I have no idea where this tv channel comes from but it has Thai subtitles and the soundtracks are in English.

 

This same cable provider don't show BBC 24 or CNN, the news channels they do offer are pretty low on quality - France 24 is about the only one that's consistently available.

Edited October 26, 2023 by ukrules

[BenStark]

6 minutes ago, ukrules said:

Now this is hilarious. Only a few days ago I was flicking through the channels on the cable tv service I have and noticed that the new Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 movie was playing - I had already seen this movie having previously downloaded the torrent, the quality was the same - perfect.

 

They obviously download the latest torrents and put these movies on all the time and they've been doing it for many years.

 

Nobody seems to care as it still happens.

 

I have no idea where this tv channel comes from but it has Thai subtitles and the soundtracks are in English.

 

This same cable provider don't show BBC 24 or CNN, the news channels they do offer are pretty low on quality - France 24 is about the only one that's consistently available.

 

There is not a single local cable company in Thailand that is legal.

 

BBC - Sky - TNT etc can not be broadcasted in Thailand, because those companies have no broadcasting rights in Thailand since other broadcasters have the rights for the same programs, which mean it isn't even possible to obtain a licence for Sky or TNT even if you had all the money in the world.

[ukrules]

1 hour ago, BenStark said:

 

There is not a single local cable company in Thailand that is legal.

 

BBC - Sky - TNT etc can not be broadcasted in Thailand, because those companies have no broadcasting rights in Thailand since other broadcasters have the rights for the same programs, which mean it isn't even possible to obtain a licence for Sky or TNT even if you had all the money in the world.

 

So these illegal cable companies choose to follow the law when it comes to BBC, Sky, TNT, etc for some reason?

 

That's the bit I don't understand - maybe they took legal action. My cable company used to have both BBC and CNN among others but they were slowly removed one by one. They still air the torrents though.

[BenStark]

9 minutes ago, ukrules said:

 

So these illegal cable companies choose to follow the law when it comes to BBC, Sky, TNT, etc for some reason?

 

That's the bit I don't understand - maybe they took legal action. My cable company used to have both BBC and CNN among others but they were slowly removed one by one. They still air the torrents though.

 

If they removed those channels they either decided to go within the law requirements, or they don't have a source for them anymore.

 

I suspect the latter LOL

 

My guess is their source was one of the free apps available on the web. A lot of those have been taken offline lately, either through raids or running out of funds.

 

The free apps get their money from ads, but since most people use an ad blocker, they don't get ad commissions, hence they run out of money, and they aren't charities.

Edited October 26, 2023 by BenStark

[brianthainess]

21 hours ago, webfact said:

of several Thai Army-run TV Channel

So its OK for them (the senate) to own a working media company, but not for Peta to own shares in a defunct one. TIT

[brianthainess]

21 hours ago, webfact said:

causing losses to the television station estimated at about 2.8 billion baht.

Please Explain. 

[Emdog]

I'd also want to know why there is an army channel, a police channel: has NOTHING to do with what should be their primary duties, none. Same goes for "police resorts" and such

"...causing losses to the television station estimated at about 2.8 billion baht."

How is it a loss if their bogus channel wasn't supplying their content overseas? Someone stealing their stolen content?

 

[khunjeff]

3 hours ago, brianthainess said:

On 10/26/2023 at 12:30 PM, webfact said:

causing losses to the television station estimated at about 2.8 billion baht.

Please Explain. 

 

It's the same creative math used by the movie and recording industries - calculate losses to piracy by pretending that every person who used the pirated content would have otherwise paid full price.

 

In this case it's even more absurd, since (as far as I know) the Thai stations weren't making this content available to viewers abroad, even if those people might have been happy to subscribe to an official streaming site.