Crackdown On Pirated CDs, DVDs

[Scott]

I almost never buy the pirated stuff. Prefer the legal stuff. Of course, it requires a choice and for a very, very long time, you couldn't find the legal stuff!

[HAL9000]

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

I'd agree. Sometimes it is hard to tell. We bought what looked like a legit one at Topland. The cover said it had English and Thai soundtrack and subtitles. This works for us so that I can read the subtitles while the wife and kid watch in Thai, but this one was originally a dual-layer disc, and the pirate had stripped off all the features and disabled the menus so that at the beginning you could only choose to listen to a Thai or English soundtrack. No subtitles.

[on-on]

This is just sucking up to the USA.

This is more likely about the ASEAN Summit, not our lovely American government which is under new management and actually pretty busy with its own affairs at the moment, thank God.

[HAL9000]

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

That's the fallacy of industry figures on how much revenue is lost to piracy. They assume that if a pirate copy wan't available that people would buy a legit copy. But many people faced with a choice of full price or not seeing it simply would not see it. At least if someone buys a pirate copy, he will be talking about the movie with friends and someone else might buy a real copy. It has been shown that pirate copies of software also stimulates sales of good software. Unfortunately, bad software suffers because then more people find out the bad ones are bad!

[harleyclarkey]

I was in Pantip lat year. Big furore and all of the CD/DVD stall got into a bit of a flap. Stashing away their goodies.

The reason? A "crackdown" raid led by a Goverment Minister, accompanied by a troop of press people.

and a couple of top police brass attired in the customary dark shades with their chests puffed out to exhibit their collection of dangling medals.

What a laugh. the keystone cops are more serious.

[CosmicSurfer]

The only thing I've bought at Pantip recently are larger harddrives and Blank DVDs... All Movies and TV series are now downloaded Torrents... Not as convenient, but the copies are usually better... and they only cost me 8 Baht for the DVD instead of 70-150 Baht (depending on stall I shop at)... Plus with a little more effort I can usually find the Subs in English for my Wife (She prefers English)... Most Thai-subs at Pantip are bad anyway.. and the English one are computer generated and incomprehensible... maybe that's also why the Thai subs are bad too.

Now that I've upgraded to 3 Mbps I can sometimes get a new release movie (screener copy.. Never a "cam") in as little as ONE HOUR. Older stuff with less activity can take a lot longer... but with the Library I've downloaded and not yet watched I can afford to wait for the slow ones to finish... even if it takes weeks.

Long Live Torrents, Demonoids and The PiratesBay.

CS

[bruceboy]

Haven't they had these crackdowns in the past and then a few weeks later everything is back to normal. TIT.

[Tyree D.]

it'll be back to normal once the American diplomats leave. And to insert my usual Korea is better reference...come here and you can download 2 gigs in 5 minutes!

[CTM]

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.

SHHH! Don't give them any ideas.

Plus, internet downloads don't suffer from all the childish censorship.

[on-on]

The only thing I've bought at Pantip recently are larger harddrives and Blank DVDs... All Movies and TV series are now downloaded Torrents... Not as convenient, but the copies are usually better... and they only cost me 8 Baht for the DVD instead of 70-150 Baht (depending on stall I shop at)... Plus with a little more effort I can usually find the Subs in English for my Wife (She prefers English)... Most Thai-subs at Pantip are bad anyway.. and the English one are computer generated and incomprehensible... maybe that's also why the Thai subs are bad too.

Now that I've upgraded to 3 Mbps I can sometimes get a new release movie (screener copy.. Never a "cam") in as little as ONE HOUR. Older stuff with less activity can take a lot longer... but with the Library I've downloaded and not yet watched I can afford to wait for the slow ones to finish... even if it takes weeks.

Long Live Torrents, Demonoids and The PiratesBay.CS

I used to have a 4Mbit home line (I work online) and after moving I didn't get one again. The size of the pipe did improve throughput, but unfortunately Thailand's dependence on three pieces of fishing line and six coconuts for international connections (private trunks anyway) results in horrible latency and packet loss. So even though I could download files faster, things like VoIP and such still suffered heavily. Can't deny that it helps with throughput, though, and it's really not that much more expensive if that speed is necessary to what you do (it is for me, but I hate giving them money for the half-assed provision). One of the few things Manila does way, way better.

[TAWP]

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.

It's actually a decent British movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0845046/

A Limited release in 2007, iirc.

[DLock]

I was at the front lines of anti piracy in various Asian countries for a leading software company, most notably Singapore in the days when piracy at Sim Lim was pretty much what Pantip is today.

We would do undercover filming (which was not only illegal, it was not admissible in court) with button hole cameras and got police, soldiers and even monks buying counterfeit software. We would also trail sellers to see where the stash was in the building (usually in vans for quick getaway or at the rear of a totally unrelated shop). I could not walk around these malls without security and I did get in several dangerous situations in carparks and stores. It wasn't the safest work, but it was fun.

We could not do anything until we had the correct documentation from the courts or police, which usually took days and by the time we got there, stores were clean - someone was tipping off the stores. Occasionally we got lucky and got a store by surprise, and that was probably a small fry given to us by the police to look efficient. And we did get some vans in the car park but literally blocking them in, and often we’d get 10’s of thousands of CD’s that made great PR.

The laws slowly changed and sentences got stiffer and piracy went underground or started appearing in lesser location, or makeshift sidewalk stalls – usually movies not software. Today, you can still find pirate stuff, but it’s harder and the industry has grown around legitimate software. Singapore’s bandwidth also makes it fast to download movies and software...but that will change over time.

There are arguments on both sides regarding piracy, the reasons and what pricing should be to reduce it. I could argue either side, especially in Thailand.

It’s up to the Government. If they wanted to, they could solve the problem overnight. Software companies in particular aren’t stupid, and they aren’t interested in individuals and home users in Thailand. Raids at Pantip do almost nothing. In fact, if people are going to pirate, companies want it to be their software, despite what they tell you – it means that when/if the do go legit or join a Corporate, they will have skills on their software.

Where software companies focus anti piracy efforts is Corporate, Government and Medium sized business (via licensing, not media deals), but they will raid some small businesses every now and again to get some PR and scare others into buying real software. But even if you are raided, you will be made to buy legitimate software and sign a document that you will never do it again. The risk is worth it. By the way, almost all small business raid information comes from ex-employees, usually disgruntled or cashing in on a BSAA reward.

Me, I have zero respect for Intellectual Property anymore and happily buy pirate everything...but i get really pissed when I buy a DVD for 90 baht and it doesn’t work.