Phuket resort on ‘red alert’ for copyright violations

PHUKET: - Phuket’s famed Patong Beach area has been put on a police ‘red alert’ list for the number of vendors selling pirated goods, with police admitting that vendors are managing to circumvent law enforcement measures despite continuous efforts to clamp down on copyright infringements over the past two years.

Speaking in response to the national police bureau’s disclosure of its list of 12 ‘red alert’ areas, Pol. Col. Chalit Thingthanee, superintendent of Kathu district police station, conceded that Patong Beach was among the 12.

Attributing Patong’s dubious status to its worldwide renown as a tourist resort, he said that vendors were aware of the hugely lucrative nature of the trade in counterfeit goods.

But Pol. Col. Chalit admitted that police efforts to crack down on pirated goods on a sustainable basis had proved largely futile. While noting that efforts over the past two years had led to a considerable number of arrests and netted a large number of pirated items worth millions of baht, traders were simply coming up with new strategies to evade the long arm of the law.

While the quantity of pirated goods being sold on the beach was now lower than in the past, the petty trading of counterfeit items was continuing, he said, while remaining confident that police would crack the problem by the end of the year.

--TNA 2004-08-04

Have they given a date when they will start the crackdown?

No, but the vendors will get prior notice!!