Crackdown On Pirated CDs, DVDs

[george]

Commerce ministry campaigns against intellectual property rights violations

BANGKOK: -- Thailand's Commerce Ministry on Saturday launched a campaign, urging the public to stop buying goods which violated intellectual property rights as the kingdom is optimistic that the United States will upgrade it to its Watch List instead of the current Priority Watch List.

Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot presided over the campaign kick-off held at two major Bangkok shopping centres -- Siam Square and Central World -- and informed shoppers that the government places violations of intellectual property rights high on the national agenda.

A committee has been formed with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva as chairman to make sure that serious suppression is enforced while Ministry of Commerce officials are scheduled to visit Washington in mid-March and hold talks with American officials on Thai progress in prosecuting violations of US intellectual property rights.

The upcoming visit coincides with American officials having compiled updated reports for use of relevant agencies in April whether it should upgrade Thailand in accordance with Section 301 of the US Trade Act.

Also, the campaign comes at the time when the ministry finds that the value of Thai movie production accounts about Bt130 billion annually but producers suffer huge losses due to counterfeited DVDs and CDs available on the market.

The ministry has set as its target to reduce counterfeited CDs by as much as 90 per cent within three months by also asking genuine CD producers to lower the prices on copyrighted products to persuade consumers to buy copyrighted products. (TNA)

-- TNA 2009-02-14

[Journalist]

Commerce ministry campaigns against intellectual property rights violations

Newspaper/Magazine/Online articles?

Edited February 14, 2009 by Journalist

[somchai69]

The Thai government could not give monkey's about intellectual rights.

This is just sucking up to the USA.

See here for the real picture.

Edited February 14, 2009 by somchai69

[basjke]

When this governement was installed I had the feeling that it was a change to the better.When I read the announcements they made in the past weeks it is very clear that they consist out of a bunch of dreamers and incompetent people who don't know what they are talking about.

[LennyW]

The Thai government could not give monkey's about intellectual rights.

This is just sucking up to the USA.

See here for the real picture.

Yes indeed....just what i was thinking!

[jtp]

Ahhh,does that mean i will have more trouble trying to find English new release movies.....

[TAWP]

The Thai government could not give monkey's about intellectual rights.

This is just sucking up to the USA.

See here for the real picture.

Yes indeed....just what i was thinking!

I would disagree with your conclusions.

All we are seeing is that the Police always will have their hands on money-making businesses.

And that the government realizes that piracy affects the local producers too once the country starts to create their own material of quality. See for instance the movie industry having grown over here but their income-levels per movie being fairly low, even for the supposed blockbusters.

A cynic might say that the anti-piracy is primarily aimed towards protecting the locally produced products but that non-local products will be somewhat affected by just being next to the Thai ones...

[britmaveric]

Ahhh more rubbish from the govt. Their usual dog/pony show for the press, guess its that time of the year.

[Crushdepth]

Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot presided over the campaign kick-off held at two major Bangkok shopping centres -- Siam Square and Central World -- and informed shoppers that the government places violations of intellectual property rights high on the national agenda.

He didn't think to hold the kick-off at Pantip?

Yawn...business as usual.

[stevehaigh]

maybe the thai gov't and the US intellectual property police have not heard of this thing called 'the internet'. it turns out you can download anything you want, any where, any time, for free.

[TAWP]

maybe the thai gov't and the US intellectual property police have not heard of this thing called 'the internet'. it turns out you can download anything you want, any where, any time, for free.

What makes you think they haven't? The fact of the matter is still that the majority of the transactions of illegal copies in Asia (not counting in Japan) is done on tangible materials, not digital downloads. Most people here don't have fast enough internet connections or even connections at all or even computers at home at the same ratio that they have VCD- or DVD-players.

[wasabi]

Well it was fun while it lasted!

[on-on]

They need to crack down on the shoddy manufacturers of knock off DVDs. They're the real problem, heh.

[sniffdog]

Campaigning at Siam Square and Central World? Wouldn't Pantip, MBK and Fortune be more appropriate places for that? Oh, I see ... some people would be pissed off when they would do that ...

But I will respond to the request and stick to my online sources, so Thailand will have a better positioning on the Watch List.

[UncleFrank]

The cops bust a business run by the cops.

Just a show.

[ignis]

Crackdown On Pirated CDs, DVDs,

The problem is what is Pirated?

OK you go to a market/Pantip and the like and buy a movie for 100 baht in a plastic folder sleeve = Copy/Pirated

But what about a Movie from a Supermarket? there sealed in a DVD case and priced at 59 baht or 79 baht or the up-to-date ones 157 baht?? Almost all are in English and Thai.

So are these genuine? legal DVD's ?? [afterall there cheaper than on a market/Pantip]

There is also the problem of time software take to download.. + for me would have to drive 50 - 100km to buy a genuine DVD of Microsoft... I have on this PC Vista and duel boot XP Pro, and on 1x laptop, the old PC and old laptop have XP Pro, these were bought at 100 baht, yet they are genuine because I phoned and paid for a license and activated them at the time, and yes I get all the updates automatically downloaded......... So a 10 min job, where as to download from MS would take 4 - 8 hours, or much longer as here the electric pop off 5 - 20 time a day.

Edited February 15, 2009 by ignis

[chalvy]

Recently went through customs in an un-named Chinese port-- bag went through x-ray, got pulled over to the inspection desk and all they wanted to look at was my DVD case. It was full of "pantip specials" and some apple software and the guy made a bit of a show asking if it was copy or not-- i just kept saying it was original and he let me go through. The real point of it is that any "pirate" worth his salt is not going to use mules to carry in 20 or 30 "master" discs. Rather he is going to bring in a bunch on his portable hard-drive or download it off the net. Kudos for having a go at it but it just shows they have no clue about how to beat the real problem-- Seems similar to arresting someone for smoking a joint but failing to bust the guy growing the pot!

[grantbkk]

The true culprit in the counterfeit DVD chain is the cinematographer who shoots the poor quality movies from his or her seat inside the theater. I continue to buy "master" copies with perfect picture and sound but some of my friends get stuck with shoddy copies that are an embarrassment to the industry. That should be the target of the police and after conviction if they show no remorse they should receive the death penalty. There is nothing like a poor quality movie to ruin your home theater experience.

I purchase numerous theatrical releases but wait until "master" copies become wildly available before I buy. I also buy way too much western television content from my trusted source. Not only does a good vendor provide the "master" copies you will also discover that the movie and television content is uncut and un-pixalated. Whoever cuts the films and television shows for broadcast in the region is one sick motherf#@ker. Not only do they cut out the errant breast they usually delete some of the necessary content needed to follow the plot of the show. These people should also be subject to the death penalty. And no take backs if they come off as contrite. Do not commute their sentence to life in prison. They knew they were messing with our minds and should pay the ultimate price for their hubris.

MBK isn't good for much but due to many factors are the best source of quality movies and television shows. They play an admirable game with the IP police and are currently winning the battle. I wish them well.

Edited February 15, 2009 by grantbkk

[ignis]

So are these genuine?

Bought on Friday at a local Supermarket, they were sealed in a DVD case and priced at 59 baht each

Son of Rambow, A Teachers Crime, Breaking and Entering, Earthquake and Lakeview Terrace. Have not seen any of them before..

[Seneque]

Crackdown (of the week) in order for the US to upgrade Thailand from 'priority watchlist' to 'watchlist' ... so the people are urged to help ??!!

These 'democrats' are a disappointing bunch and their vision (if any) of the future is blurred ... just like the cigarette, the gun, the odd breast, etc... the government puritanism is fake and the people are blamed.

[Indra]

So are these genuine?

Bought on Friday at a local Supermarket, they were sealed in a DVD case and priced at 59 baht each

Son of Rambow, A Teachers Crime, Breaking and Entering, Earthquake and Lakeview Terrace. Have not seen any of them before..

Most likely they are pirated ones.

Do you think that it is possible that someone might sell a USD 15 things at the price THB 59?

[Indra]

Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot presided over the campaign kick-off held at two major Bangkok shopping centres -- Siam Square and Central World -- and informed shoppers that the government places violations of intellectual property rights high on the national agenda.

He didn't think to hold the kick-off at Pantip?

Yawn...business as usual.

Well, we can say that both policemen and Thai government are doing smart.

Thai people will be happy to know that Siam Square and Central World are prohibited places to buy such pirated material; They'd better head to Pantip instead

[MJo]

Nothing new, they have been organazing these "raids" to Phantip for years. Usually couple of times a year. I used to live right next to Phantip and it always took couple of days and they were back in business. They have the covers only to choose from in the shop and the actual disks come from carpark or somewhere else close. Police catch was only few printed covers and maybe one or two "orders" of actual disks. And only from those shops that were not aware of the raid beforehand...

[Igor]

Same thing happened a year or so ago. They made a big show of busting a couple of street vendors at the night bazaar who were back the following night. Hillary's about to start her SEAsian tour. Big show. All will be back to normal soon. Besides, here in Chiang Mai, it's almost impossible to buy a major software release. I looked all over town for a copy of Photoshop Elements. Finally just bought it (AND Photoshop AND about 16 other programs) for B100. All will return to normal soon. I feel sorry for the odd vendor or three who will lose a night or two of business.

[jdinasia]

The Pantip folks were closed up pretty tight on Fri evening. We had to call our guy there and meet him at his new shop

[pampal]

The BIB were out in force last week in Chinatown busting shops that sell counterfeit handbags, but just before they arrives, their colleagues dropped by every shop and warned them about the impending crackdown. Net result was zero shops busted.

[DaiHard]

When I first came here I bought legal versions of movies (at great expense) only to find that because of all the DRM/anti copying nonsense they won't play on my computer. However the bootleg copies I bought of the same movies (as the shop I bought them from wouldn't exchange them because they suspected the new copies wouldn't play either) worked perfectly.

Drop the price to somewhere between the bootleg and the over the top full price and remove the stupid anti copying nonsense which stops them being played and you might just find that we'd buy the legal versions.

BTW I always found Phantip copies were rubbish (recorded too fast on sub standard media) so I buy my bootlegs from Homebase - go figure!

[t.s]

So are these genuine?

Bought on Friday at a local Supermarket, they were sealed in a DVD case and priced at 59 baht each

Son of Rambow, A Teachers Crime, Breaking and Entering, Earthquake and Lakeview Terrace. Have not seen any of them before..

given the spelling of "Son of Rambow", i would supect it is spurious.

the rest are likely just locally licenced copies at a lower price

[thaibkk]

in 3rd world countries where any program cost more than a month's salary... how many will be spending this on one program ?

[Lix]

Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot presided over the campaign kick-off held at two major Bangkok shopping centres -- Siam Square and Central World -- and informed shoppers that the government places violations of intellectual property rights high on the national agenda.

He didn't think to hold the kick-off at Pantip?

Yawn...business as usual.

That was my first thought, i hate Siam and Central world, they never have all the pirate stuff i need