Music Copyright Detective Victimised In Pattaya

[Cuban]

Pattaya Daily News website news story.

In short a guy collecting for the copyright owners get his car messed up.

The interesting thing that I was recently told (talking to a seller of DVDs etc at a party last week) was that each outlet avoids police 'attention' for 10,000 Baht a month, so there is little desire to kill this business by either the buyers, sellers or local police. Seems that the honest copyright collectors are screwed from both sides.

I read online that seeders of copyright material will no longer be tracked down online by the copyright owners, not sure this is true for all movies, music etc?

But is there something in the pipeline that will close the copyright issue, DRM enforcemnent?

[anothertorres]

it really frustrates me that i can't hang out in a nice Thai bar and listen to some Carabao every once in a while. no one seems to be "paying" for the good music. and good lord, has anyone listened to the radio these days? who the heck is programming such garbage???

sorry, end rant.

[jtp]

Pattaya Daily News website news story.

In short a guy collecting for the copyright owners get his car messed up.

The interesting thing that I was recently told (talking to a seller of DVDs etc at a party last week) was that each outlet avoids police 'attention' for 10,000 Baht a month, so there is little desire to kill this business by either the buyers, sellers or local police. Seems that the honest copyright collectors are screwed from both sides.

I read online that seeders of copyright material will no longer be tracked down online by the copyright owners, not sure this is true for all movies, music etc?

But is there something in the pipeline that will close the copyright issue, DRM enforcemnent?

If they go doing this rubbish to people,then they should be very worried about personal saftey!- Pattaya Daily News website news story. -

Closer to home, PDN has been involved in two cases where intermediaries, supposedly appointed to police the local entertainment industry, who have used their position to their own advantage to cheat local bar owners over the copyright issue.

On 14 February 2008, at 11.00 pm. Mr Bruno, an Australian bar owner, was sitting drinking with his friends in his bar on Jomtien Beach Road, celebrating Valentine's Day with many people in his bar, apart from his bar staff, when a group of Thai men walked into the bar. They told the cashier that they were a copyright authority company and demanded to check the CD racks, which the cashier let them do. The staff, at this time, were playing Valentine's Day music on an original CD. One of the men then grabbed a few CD copies from the rack, which had not been used for long time, but were nevertheless still kept on the rack. He then confronted the bar owner, Mr. Bruno, with his find.

Mr. Bruno showed the copyright men that he'd already had three different licenses. He understood that he did not need any more licenses; a fact that he'd verified when the same company had previously visited the bar. The men tried to remonstrate in very poor English with Mr. Bruno and even attempted to explain in Thai to Thai staff, but the staff could not understand the rules of the copyright license, either.

Mr. Bruno then asked one of the men to show him his ID Card from the company authority. The man showed Mr. Bruno his card quickly, Mr. Bruno then took the card from the man's hand and, taking it to the photo copier, made a copy.

While he was waiting for the copier to finish, a short Thai man approached him from behind and punched him on the head, and the rest of them joined in. Then they locked his hand behind his back and beat him until he fell down. His wife at this juncture was begging them to stop hurting her husband.

When the men threatened to take Mr. Bruno to the police station, he refused to go since he believed that he had followed the rules and paid for all the licenses that he needed. Mr. Bruno tried to call the local police, but received no answer. The group then called their boss who arrived later with his partner, a lady, who Mr. Bruno claimed spoke very good English and tried to convince him to confess that he had illegal music copies in his possession.

The copyright group then took a lady member of staff, who could hardly speak English, to the police station. Mr. Bruno was then forced to pay a fine and to also buy a new license amounting to Bt. 25,000. In addition, his lady staff member signed up a paper without reading it, admitting that his bar had copied CD music illegally.

A week later, Mr. Bruno visited the Pattaya Daily News office and tried to ascertain if all his licenses for music were the correct ones, or if he needed more. PDN editor accompanied Mr. Bruno to Pattaya City Hall and met with Mr. Ronakit Ekasing, the Deputy Mayor, who was co-incidentally having a meeting with the copyright company.

After two hours of explanations, discussions, and phone calls, Mr. Bruno agreed to go to the police station to report his case with another 15 bar owners that had had similar problems. Trying to get the police to report his case took a long time as he reported late, even though he reported no instances of physically harm or damages, after which the police agreed to allow him register his complaint.

On the same day, at 9.30 pm. PDN received an urgent report from a bar owner's wife in the same area as Mr. Bruno's bar that the same group of four men was searching her bar and subsequently took the bar owner to the police station.

At the police station, the bar owner, a British man who did not want his name mentioned, was asked to pay a Bt. 50,000 fine; he then called his lawyer for advice. During the time that the bar owner was waiting for the due process to take its course, Mr. Bruno was notified that he had to come to the police station to identify the group of men to ascertain if they were the same group that he'd had problems with.

After some negotiation, the British man managed to have his "fine" reduced to Bt. 25,000. And Mr. Bruno is in the process of suing the attackers.

PDN would like to make the case that to avoid graft, excessive fines and strong arm tactics by questionable intermediaries, City Hall and the police should clarify the situation, agree on exactly what licenses are necessary and what the statutory fines should be. That would prevent many headaches and disgruntlement on the behalf of bar-owners and others who feel that they have been cheated and badly treated.

[twix38]

The authorities here are complicit and pay lip service only. Simple

If they were serious then the street sellers selling pirate CD's on Beach Road could not continue, as I saw whilst he was talking to a Policeman with all the stock on show. It's pirate and porn on show, as clear as daylight.

What about Tuk.com. It's a building with sellers that sell pirate software cd's aplenty and put it in all computers sold! It's almost official piracy set up as a big store!

Nobody wants to clean up or they would remove the easy targets in public view or clean up shops (don't move) like Tuk.com properly instead of occasional raids that only those not paying don't get tipped off about.

How can anyone take authorities seriously with such clear, consistent and tolerated abuses to copyright law.

C'mon, you just have to laugh at their efforts, and realise it's completely lip service and deliberate.

Edited February 16, 2009 by twix38