Mobiles Ban For Cinemas

[george]

Mobiles ban for cinemas

BANGKOK: -- Mobile phones will soon be banned from cinemas as the government strives to combat the high level of intellectual-property-rights (IPR) violations in the Kingdom.

The move follows a meeting yesterday between Deputy Commerce Minister Banyin Tangpaporn and officers of the International Intellectual Property Association (IIPA).

The association urged the creation of a law forbidding mobiles in cinemas, because it found that easy access for high-technology late-model phones had increased copyright infringements.

Yesterday's meeting also sought closer cooperation between the IIPA and Thai authorities in the suppression of IPR violations, following Thailand's relegation to the US Priority Watch List (PWL) for failing to protect US movies, music and computer programs against piracy. The list entails extra scrutiny and the threat of economic sanctions if the US decides to pursue complaints before the World Trade Organisation.

"The IIPA has called for stringent laws to forbid mobile phones in cinemas, because there is reportedly a high level of violations when they are allowed in," Banyin said.

Thai police say cases of mobile phones being used to violate film copyright in cinemas have been reported to them.

The Intellectual Property Depart- ment will be asked to call a meeting of relevant agencies, including cinema operators and owners of film copyrights, to discuss the problem.

Banyin said film-copyright violations have destroyed the country's image in the eyes of the international community.

"We have the Copyright Act to control such crimes;we may need more regulations and stringent punishments."

--The Nation 2008-05-01

[kingwilly]

how on earth do they think they will enforce that???

[Jingthing]

Is this April fool's day again?

If I were Thai, I would be very worried about how silly my government is.

Edited May 1, 2008 by Jingthing

[sweetchariot]

As usual they miss the point completely. From the title of your post I assumed it was to stop them ringing (ie. check you have it switched off before entering), which would be a good idea as Thais seem to think it's perfectly OK for their phone to ring, and even bloody answer it in the cinema.

Everybody carries a mobile phone about their person these days, so if enforced then nobody will be able to go to the cinema. Also the resolution from a mobile would be unwatchable on a big TV (mind you I've had a few unwatchable DVD's in my time). Also, maybe I'm wrong on this, but I wouldn't have thought you would have the storage capacity on a phone for a whole movie.

I think a better place to start would be by banning video cameras

Muppets.

[onethailand]

haha... funny stuff.

The best mobile phone video is 640x480, does not work well in dark places, and is unlikely to have the amount of memory required to store a 90 minute film (not to mention enough battery power).

In the meantime, people are not going to leave their mobile phones upon entry - so there are going to be even more empty seats, as if there weren't enough already.

[TEFLMike]

Do not know about the Government being silly, but when The Thai Government get wind of what the UK Government announced yesterday, it will be the end of the end for all 3G mobiles. The UK Gov, in their wisdom, have announce a new law that all mobiles that take pictures/videos will be banned , as they have been used by thugs to take pics and footage of beatings of both adults and youths.

[burman]

Banyin said film-copyright violations have destroyed the country's image in the eyes of the international community.

I think the coups, mass murder of citizens without trial and sex trade have been more damaging.

Edited May 1, 2008 by burman

[burman]

The UK Gov, in their wisdom, have announce a new law that all mobiles that take pictures/videos will be banned , as they have been used by thugs to take pics and footage of beatings of both adults and youths.

What a shame. Now people will get beaten to death without the thugs providing a useful piece of evidence for court.

[TEFLMike]

ahhhh! but they are clever. The people doing the beatings and filming are never on the phots.footage

[hanibal7]

Sweetchariot,

I thought it was to stop thais being downright rude by keeping phones on in a place that we all pay money to watch a film and not listen to some thai saying

urgh

urgh

ka

ka

urgh

urgh

So bloody rude,and this is the real problem with thailand,so many people not thinking about other people.

[burman]

But quite a few of them have walked round school proudly showing off the video they made.

[astral]

What a joke.

The copies taken with decent video cameras in the cinema are pretty dire.

Anything taken with a mobile phone, well...................

[edwinchester]

Do not know about the Government being silly, but when The Thai Government get wind of what the UK Government announced yesterday, it will be the end of the end for all 3G mobiles. The UK Gov, in their wisdom, have announce a new law that all mobiles that take pictures/videos will be banned , as they have been used by thugs to take pics and footage of beatings of both adults and youths.

Not doubting you but that sounds very hard to believe. Do you have a link for the banning of camera mobiles in the UK?

[tom yum goong]

lol, thanks for this. pure comedy. you couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.

its never going to happen but they should at least think for a second first before they make ridiculous announcements like this.

[bkkbaz]

Do not know about the Government being silly, but when The Thai Government get wind of what the UK Government announced yesterday, it will be the end of the end for all 3G mobiles. The UK Gov, in their wisdom, have announce a new law that all mobiles that take pictures/videos will be banned , as they have been used by thugs to take pics and footage of beatings of both adults and youths.

Utter nonsense, where on earth did you hear this?

[AsiaCheese]

Someone must indeed have gotten their calendar off-center... hey guys, it's 1st of May, not 1st of April. Both as far as mobiles-2-cinema and the GB-3G thing is concerned.

I mean honestly... how far have we come? This world is brain-damaged

[mortti]

So this is the Thai government's way to respond to US. They really really dont want to touch MBK, Pantip etc.

[wrecker]

It seem that certain people like to do as if, this is a real problem. No one in his or her right mind would watch a movie where you have to watch at a moving picture. At the best they need the Thai sound track, but you do not need a mobile phone for that. It is highly immoral to lock up a few children who film a few scenes. Everybody knows that the real culprits are far more professional and are doing an inside job. You cannot stop the owner from installing a high tech camera or giving the promotional DVD to a DVD factory, where they remove the watermark.

As always they love to go for the small fish, so it looks like they are efficient. No way that this makes any difference. The only advantage is however that we do not get disturbed anymore by phones that are going off.

[OdeTheBear]

Do not know about the Government being silly, but when The Thai Government get wind of what the UK Government announced yesterday, it will be the end of the end for all 3G mobiles. The UK Gov, in their wisdom, have announce a new law that all mobiles that take pictures/videos will be banned , as they have been used by thugs to take pics and footage of beatings of both adults and youths.

I don't think so

[yankeechief]

Just never ceases just how "Amazing Thailand" really is!

[MartinS]

So this is the Thai government's way to respond to US. They really really dont want to touch MBK, Pantip etc.

I must agree with what some others have said. Amazing they are not requiring switching off of mobiles upon entering with staff on hand to oversee and eject those who fail to do this. Collection of mobiles upon entry with a ticket to recover is frought with problems if large numbers, opening nights etc. I have been on military establishments where they do this and I also know that the UK embassy in Bangkok does this but the number of people involved is quite small I think.

Perhaps also some lateral thinking. Attacking the cinemas as an area of concern is politically easy. It appears on the surface to be a strong response but in reality will of course have almost zero impact on the real source so upsetting voters the least. As someone else said the cinemas are not exactly overflowing and I'd add that many customers are perhaps below voting age so not too many voters likely to be offended.

My guess is this will fall off the radar at some point when the cinema owners demand government compensation for providing staff to collect, secure and return all the phones and insure against losses.

[jts-khorat]

Another crazy and stupid (and unenforceable) law the Thai government plans to bring out; in a country where so much depends on face I am again and again surprised how willingly politicians act like kindergarten-age children and put cake all over their face.

It is obvious that NOBODY films a movie in a cinema and puts it on a DVD for sale by using a mobile phone. We are not in the 80s any more.

Nowadays those are highly professional operations with CD-pressing equipment using very good digital copies of the films themselves; so large amounts of money are involved that they must be available to such operations maybe even from insiders form the studios or distribution companies themselves.

But then again, if it is so obvious common knowledge, why do the Thais not scream with laughter and such "news" is really printed in a newspaper? Amazing Thailand.

[timekeeper]

Do not know about the Government being silly, but when The Thai Government get wind of what the UK Government announced yesterday, it will be the end of the end for all 3G mobiles. The UK Gov, in their wisdom, have announce a new law that all mobiles that take pictures/videos will be banned , as they have been used by thugs to take pics and footage of beatings of both adults and youths.

Not doubting you but that sounds very hard to believe. Do you have a link for the banning of camera mobiles in the UK?

its only in at schools in West Lothian in Scotland

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/3524913.stm

[thaibkk]

crazy, in other countries they are seeking for a real solution

(put a guard in the room )

here they would say: do not bring ur mobile phone to the cinema

or, you have to put it in a locker near the cinema that you can hire for 2 baht for 2 hours

mobile phone camera quality still sucks and who can hold his mobile for 1 1/2 hour straight still

so: a good advice, just torrent your movies in a few weeks or months and nobody will bother you for anything

[lazeeboy]

thats good news ,now my pirated dvd's wont have any unwanted ringtones in dailogue

[bkkbaz]

Do not know about the Government being silly, but when The Thai Government get wind of what the UK Government announced yesterday, it will be the end of the end for all 3G mobiles. The UK Gov, in their wisdom, have announce a new law that all mobiles that take pictures/videos will be banned , as they have been used by thugs to take pics and footage of beatings of both adults and youths.

Not doubting you but that sounds very hard to believe. Do you have a link for the banning of camera mobiles in the UK?

its only in at schools in West Lothian in Scotland

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/3524913.stm

And that story is from more than four years ago, so not "yesterday" either. Glad we cleared that one up!

[Krit]

Could anybody recommend a mobile phone for me? I was thinking of getting a video camera but I see that mobile phones have developed a lot recently.

I will be filming around Thailand and am mainly interested in a phone that can record at least 3 hours of DVD quality movie with simultaneous 5.1 DTS and Dolby Digital soundtracks. Some kind of steadycam function is a must because I will be shooting without a tripod. OCR software to capture texts for optional subtitles would of course be a plus. If possible, I would also like to create the DVD menus and burn the DVDs with the phone.

Realistically speaking, if anyone uses a mobile to catch a few seconds of a movie and shows it to a couple of friends, there is a name for that. It's called guerrilla marketing. Or buzz marketing. Not that this should be condoned, but it's just going to get more people go to see that movie.

An nescis, mi fili, quantilla sapientia mundus regatur?

[Boater]

TIT

[markg]

Holy mother of christ on a fuc_king bike.

This government NEVER ceases to amaze me. And it also troubles me.

YET AGAIN they have given NO thought to the implementation and enforcement of this ludicrous law !

There are two areas that have begun to worry me though.

1. This government likes picking on the little guy. Talk of increased booze bans over holiday periods. Trying to ban certain websites (youTube for instance - and the world laughed as they failed) And now banning mobile phones in cinemas because they think people can record a whole film on such a device. Clearly YOU CANNOT ! fuc_kING IDIOTS.

2. And more worrying is that YET AGAIN Thai people have voted in, democratically, another self-serving dictator.

I'm quite serious about this. The Thai idea of democracy and the Western idea of democracy appear to not be even similar.

When this absolutely CORRUPT country has problems like MONKS and POLICEMEN cheating in exams, when there is an Army officer who killed someone and is then allowed back into the force 'after the heat has died down', when an ex-PM has 'all' his assets frozen but manages to buy an English football club with his 82 million POUNDS small change...............and the banning of mobile phones is the best they can come up with?

This is a joke right?

All the fundamental things that are wrong with this country and this is the best they can come up with.

Jesus H fuc_king Christ Almighty.

We're living in Disneyland, boys, and Daffy fuc_king Duck is at the helm.

To think, i have been toying with the idea of investing in a business and property in this country................

forget it. It becomes more like Burma and China every day.

[callipposhots]

Do not know about the Government being silly, but when The Thai Government get wind of what the UK Government announced yesterday, it will be the end of the end for all 3G mobiles. The UK Gov, in their wisdom, have announce a new law that all mobiles that take pictures/videos will be banned , as they have been used by thugs to take pics and footage of beatings of both adults and youths.

I don't think so

pay no attention to the man or woman behind the curtain. That post is just complete bullshit.