Pirate Dvds In Thailand

[ozzieman05]

Walk into Panthrip Plaza and most other big shopping centers in BKK and you will see copy dvds every where

Now the Americans are saying agin Thailand is 1 of the worst countries in the world

Now at first look ,most honest people will agree

But look under the surface and who is the criminal here

In Australia we pat any where up to $36 for 1 dvd, while the cost to print is approx $1.85

Not a bad mark up, but how do they justify this price

By saying there is a world pirate market that is taking away there legally priced goods so they must charge more

Now you know where some Thai bars get their, Increase the price as times are slow ideas

First lets look at what they once said was their main market

Last week I went to the cinema to see the latest Disney Movie

beside myself and the Thai wife there was 1 other persion in the room

1) Cost of lighting cleaning and running the cinema

2) Cost of wages

3) Over heads taxes etc

$17 taken at the door, at a real stretch of the imagination lets say costs are $11 per showing

Leave a net profit of $6 divided by 3 and that is $2 per person

And the cinemas are still going

In fact at the Big Robina shopping centre in Qld they have just spent 1.5 Million on a new cinema

Now using these facts if they sold dvds at $2 each they would increase sales by 1000% and must be making a massive profit comparing to the cinema equivilant costing

So why can the cinema exist

Easy they are heavily funded by the movie companies to pre launch DVDs

Wait 6 months after the release nd that same $36 dvd drops to $6 at your local KMart

So here we establish the real value of the product

What all the Head Banging about Piracy is really about, is so the Movie companies can ripoff customers under the guise they are loosing monies

So next time you see a pirate dvd for sale in Bkk

Buy 6 you are really helping them keep their prices high

Not hurting their business in any way or form

[Oberkommando]

So next time you see a pirate dvd for sale in Bkk

Buy 6 you are really helping them keep their prices high

Not hurting their business in any way or form

No thanks.

Why should I pay Thai criminals for something that, if I wanted to steal, I could download for free?

[dave111223]

You seem to have forgotten a key factor....THE COST TO FILM THE MOVIES!

They don't just turn on the DVD press and movies magic appear, it costs millions and millions of dollar to make a movie.

Also where are the getting your "cost to print is approx $1.85"? Surely it only costs them a few cents for actual DVD when manufacturers thousands?

[phaethon]

TAN had a report yesterday which said the Deputy PM was being put in charge of an anti-piracy campaign and they were going to attack the problem of pirated DVD sales on Thai streets by... prosecuting the people who buy them. Thai stall-owners with hundreds of illegal copies on display can rest easy.

Now I don't buy them because they are bloody awful quality, but I can see there's going to be a tea-money bonanza down Sukhumvit in the near future.

[Ta22]

myself hardly buy any DVD nowaday and prefer to go watch the movie . personlly cos to me is a trip to go out with freinds and my wife

but then again ..i think the current system is BADLY flawed -- i had paid alot of money during the DVD pre launch .. and alot of the disc is just crap and do not last ..

and soem of the movie that i love .. just do not last as long as there said .

so what i can do . buy the same title again ?

nowaday i am just too busy to sit down to go over my old Dvd colelction or watch it cos i been relaly busy with alot of my oversea and local project .

but i do agree that the western world love to over price thing .. and then scream thief , the real theif is the one screaming wolf .. using the clock of law to make profit off the helpless

Edited May 1, 2009 by Ta22

[wasabi]

Just about every movie is available streaming online nowadays if you care to pursue the less than upstanding path to viewing.

I do wonder how Thai movie theaters stay in business. Almost ever time I've gone to see a movie the theater is only about 1/5th full. It is fine with me but I do wonder why they keep building SFW cinema centers when going to the movies doesn't seem to be a part of Thai culture.

[Sabum]

Now I don't buy them because they are bloody awful quality, but I can see there's going to be a tea-money bonanza down Sukhumvit in the near future.

Check again buddy, if you have an honest vendor and you request it he will only sell you perfect quality DVD's. I buy from the same vendor all the time and only get good DVD's.

[ozzieman05]

IF any one gets ripped off with bad dvds in Thailand they only have then selves to blame

Buy of a street stall and what do you really expect

In Sukumvit there is a luggage shop that sells dvd's out the back

Tell thm you only want a digital master copy and they give a money back gaurantee on the quality

Go to Pratanam Centre and all the DVD stalls have a dvd connected to a tv so you can see before you hand over the money

I find on average 1 bad dvd for every 10 I buy and always get an exchange or my money back

In Pattaya I sit out the front and they always let me check the dvds first before I buy on my laptop

If they say no I say No and wait for the next travelling dvd sales person

[ozzieman05]

Yep

Can not be the fault of Thais

They are just trying to make a liviing

Its all the fault of those nasty Farang

From the Bangkok Post

On the heels of a US decision on Thursday that kept Thailand on its special watch list of nations that fail to crack down on copyright and patent violations.

The Thai government is introducing new laws not to stop the Thais selling dvds, but to penalise the buyers and users (Farang) of pirated products and the commercial building landlords who ignore tenants who sell pirated goods.

According to Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot, the ministry has directed the Intellectual Property Department to draft legislation to cover penalties against buyers, users and possessors of products that violate copyrights or patents.

The new legislation would also aim to penalise flea market owners and department stores that lease their space or offices to those who sell pirated goods.

Only in our beloved Thailand

[Ulysses G.]

Now I don't buy them because they are bloody awful quality, but I can see there's going to be a tea-money bonanza down Sukhumvit in the near future.

Check again buddy, if you have an honest vendor and you request it he will only sell you perfect quality DVD's. I buy from the same vendor all the time and only get good DVD's.

I have buying from the same 2 guys for years and they know I live here and will return bad DVDS. However, I have been getting 9 out of 10 bad ones lately and I am getting tired of bringing them back. I'm ready to start downloading myself for free!

[Birdman]

Can remember DVD movies recorded in cinemas by hand camera. One could see someone of the audience get up from time to time. The sound was that muffled like coming out of the neighbours house with closed doors.

[Changian]

Can remember DVD movies recorded in cinemas by hand camera.

Bit off topic but I remember watching one of those in a guesthouse in KSR donkeys years ago. Half way through the camera fell on it's side. Cue everyone tilting heads at a painful 90 degree angle. Fonturnately the guesthouse owner was happy to flip the TV on it's side so we could enjoy the remainder of the movie in comfort.

[longstebe]

IF any one gets ripped off with bad dvds in Thailand they only have then selves to blame

Buy of a street stall and what do you really expect

In Sukumvit there is a luggage shop that sells dvd's out the back

Tell thm you only want a digital master copy and they give a money back gaurantee on the quality

Go to Pratanam Centre and all the DVD stalls have a dvd connected to a tv so you can see before you hand over the money

I find on average 1 bad dvd for every 10 I buy and always get an exchange or my money back

In Pattaya I sit out the front and they always let me check the dvds first before I buy on my laptop

If they say no I say No and wait for the next travelling dvd sales person

Have to agree with that one

[Maizefarmer]

Walk into Panthrip Plaza and most other big shopping centers in BKK and you will see copy dvds every where

Now the Americans are saying agin Thailand is 1 of the worst countries in the world

Now at first look ,most honest people will agree

But look under the surface and who is the criminal here

In Australia we pat any where up to $36 for 1 dvd, while the cost to print is approx $1.85

Not a bad mark up, but how do they justify this price

By saying there is a world pirate market that is taking away there legally priced goods so they must charge more

Now you know where some Thai bars get their, Increase the price as times are slow ideas

First lets look at what they once said was their main market

Last week I went to the cinema to see the latest Disney Movie

beside myself and the Thai wife there was 1 other persion in the room

1) Cost of lighting cleaning and running the cinema

2) Cost of wages

3) Over heads taxes etc

$17 taken at the door, at a real stretch of the imagination lets say costs are $11 per showing

Leave a net profit of $6 divided by 3 and that is $2 per person

And the cinemas are still going

In fact at the Big Robina shopping centre in Qld they have just spent 1.5 Million on a new cinema

Now using these facts if they sold dvds at $2 each they would increase sales by 1000% and must be making a massive profit comparing to the cinema equivilant costing

So why can the cinema exist

Easy they are heavily funded by the movie companies to pre launch DVDs

Wait 6 months after the release nd that same $36 dvd drops to $6 at your local KMart

So here we establish the real value of the product

What all the Head Banging about Piracy is really about, is so the Movie companies can ripoff customers under the guise they are loosing monies

So next time you see a pirate dvd for sale in Bkk

Buy 6 you are really helping them keep their prices high

Not hurting their business in any way or form

Dont take it personally - it is after all a free choice decision.

To look at the retail cost of a DVD against the production cost you quote (didnt think it was even that expensive!) is to miss the point - the retail cost is all about intellectual property, musical skil blah blah , blah blah ......

But point taken - yes, piracy is indeed a product of gross overpricing. In most cases I think the IP owners really only have themselves to blame - heres a good example: Autocad - complete all bells & whistles pro version, something like $10, 000 plus. At Panthip I got an excellent fully functioning copy (less of course the genuine support) for Baht 750!

Its similar to the argument that Timberland workers had in Thailand a few years back - they went on strike because they were been paid X amount versus some or other celeb's xmillion promo contract. Fair comment, but the other side of the coin says that they wouldn't even have their jobs in the first place if it weren't for the success of marketing stratergies that employeed celeb's xmillion't to put their man to the products.

..... lots of ways of looking at the arguments on both sides!

[TonySoprano]

download for free.

[JimsKnight]

TAN had a report yesterday which said the Deputy PM was being put in charge of an anti-piracy campaign and they were going to attack the problem of pirated DVD sales on Thai streets by... prosecuting the people who buy them. Thai stall-owners with hundreds of illegal copies on display can rest easy.

Now I don't buy them because they are bloody awful quality, but I can see there's going to be a tea-money bonanza down Sukhumvit in the near future.

And damage tourism even more than it already is? I don't think so einstein. More hot air to appease big bad wolf of the USA methinks.

[Jimjim]

Just about every movie is available streaming online nowadays if you care to pursue the less than upstanding path to viewing.

I do wonder how Thai movie theaters stay in business. Almost ever time I've gone to see a movie the theater is only about 1/5th full. It is fine with me but I do wonder why they keep building SFW cinema centers when going to the movies doesn't seem to be a part of Thai culture.

Based on your very scientific survey?

That's a laugh. I've been to loads of movies in Bangkok where the cinema was full to the max. Many, many times. There are always going to be showings that aren't full, that's just accepted. It is a part of Thai culture, and certainly true that more Thais watch movies and TV than read books. And why not go to movies if you're in Bangkok? The cinemas in Bangkok are the nicest I've been to anywhere in the world, as well as being the cheapest.

[ozzieman05]

Seems we must go to different Cinemas

as I to have never seen one with more than 15 people it

And tio me thats packed

Edited May 2, 2009 by ozzieman05

[ozzieman05]

This mornings Bangkok Post

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said it is not beyond his expectation that Washington has maintained Thailand on its Priority Watch List as Thailand has not effectively dealt with intellectual property rights violations.

He said that the assessment of the status on Thailand was made over a short period of time.

There is still no need to issue new intellectual property laws as the current ones still work, he continued.

________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________

Excuse me I thought that the problem was THEY DO NOT WORK

Sorry My Thai wife just explained they work for Thai's, No 1 Priority in Thailand

She is trying to explain to me the cost to the Thai employment that would be incurred if they stopped Pirate DVD selling

It seems the benefits of this industry go from the bottom (the guy who walks the street)

Throught the local Police

To the very top

[dominique355]

Yep

Can not be the fault of Thais

They are just trying to make a liviing

Its all the fault of those nasty Farang

From the Bangkok Post

On the heels of a US decision on Thursday that kept Thailand on its special watch list of nations that fail to crack down on copyright and patent violations.

The Thai government is introducing new laws not to stop the Thais selling dvds, but to penalise the buyers and users (Farang) of pirated products and the commercial building landlords who ignore tenants who sell pirated goods.

According to Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot, the ministry has directed the Intellectual Property Department to draft legislation to cover penalties against buyers, users and possessors of products that violate copyrights or patents.

The new legislation would also aim to penalise flea market owners and department stores that lease their space or offices to those who sell pirated goods.

Only in our beloved Thailand

As always in Thailand, it's not the legislation which is faulty, it's the enforcement. They can crank out as many laws as they want, that's not gonna change anything. Only when the Police starts doing their job will things change.

Now you can think about pirate software and DVD what you like, but the fact of the matter is that selling pirate stuff is the same as stealing and the government has to do something about it. With pirate CDs and DVDs, the problem is that making a copy is so easy. How can you stop that? I don't know. But basically, lowering the price of the original CD or DVD seems to me to be the right way.

[ozzieman05]

An article I read on the net, was saying film companies pay thousands of dollars to put protection on their dvds which they know is useless and will not stop the average hacker to remove

Why ?

So they can claim that prates are costing them thousands and up the price of their dvds at the cash register

Who is the real thief here

[Maizefarmer]

Yep

Can not be the fault of Thais

They are just trying to make a liviing

Its all the fault of those nasty Farang

From the Bangkok Post

On the heels of a US decision on Thursday that kept Thailand on its special watch list of nations that fail to crack down on copyright and patent violations.

The Thai government is introducing new laws not to stop the Thais selling dvds, but to penalise the buyers and users (Farang) of pirated products and the commercial building landlords who ignore tenants who sell pirated goods.

According to Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot, the ministry has directed the Intellectual Property Department to draft legislation to cover penalties against buyers, users and possessors of products that violate copyrights or patents.

The new legislation would also aim to penalise flea market owners and department stores that lease their space or offices to those who sell pirated goods.

Only in our beloved Thailand

As always in Thailand, it's not the legislation which is faulty, it's the enforcement. They can crank out as many laws as they want, that's not gonna change anything. Only when the Police starts doing their job will things change.

Now you can think about pirate software and DVD what you like, but the fact of the matter is that selling pirate stuff is the same as stealing and the government has to do something about it. With pirate CDs and DVDs, the problem is that making a copy is so easy. How can you stop that? I don't know. But basically, lowering the price of the original CD or DVD seems to me to be the right way.

Er .......... it's both: just go look up the penalties and you'll quickly see that in proportion to potential earnings, the legislation is woefully lacking. The exception is in respect of copyright violation - for which potentialy the penalties are limitless as it can be settled out of court between violator and copyright holder (ask stickman bangkok - they stung him deliberately with copyright, versus trademark or anything else) - but for the rest of the counterfeight/copying rule book (e.g. trademark and the couple other headings under which this all falls) the penalties are all but laughable - the legislation is a joke.

[Oberkommando]

IF any one gets ripped off with bad dvds in Thailand they only have then selves to blame

Buy of a street stall and what do you really expect

In Sukumvit there is a luggage shop that sells dvd's out the back

Tell thm you only want a digital master copy and they give a money back gaurantee on the quality

Go to Pratanam Centre and all the DVD stalls have a dvd connected to a tv so you can see before you hand over the money

I find on average 1 bad dvd for every 10 I buy and always get an exchange or my money back

In Pattaya I sit out the front and they always let me check the dvds first before I buy on my laptop

If they say no I say No and wait for the next travelling dvd sales person

It's a shame that the discs are rubbish quality media even if the content is watchable. The encoding on many titles is simply terrible even if they are so called 'master' quality.

Not to mention many of the covers and discs state DVD9 when they are not in fact dual layer DVDs.

If you are still paying these petty criminals for this rubbish instead of downloading yourself and getting better quality stuff quicker than the Thais from scene group releases then you are in no position to be lecturing others about anything IMO.

[Jingthing]

More hot air to appease big bad wolf of the USA methinks.

If people stopped buying movies tickets and paying retail for DVDs, do you reckon Hollywood would bother making 100 million dollar budget movies, or really any movies for that matter? Now I am no innocent in this department (I live in Thailand) but do you expect a major industry will just give up without a fight? That is naive.

Edited May 3, 2009 by Jingthing

[livinthailandos]

3 things here I'd point out

1. Piracy in thailand, most countries don't like but until thailand has an actual system in places that improves the quality of education, jobs, infrastructure, actual wages or basically when corruption is gone, then piracy might go away

2. Buying DVD pirated copy vs DVD Actual copy, I've done both, to be fair though if its a movie Im wanting to see though I go to the movie threature though as the size of the screen and sound can't replace the experience you get from it

3. Pirated software, thats one thing I dont go into, every software I've found was either on www.download.com or I got for free as in free speech using linux. why pay for a windows xp pirated copy when I can use linux, why use pirated adobe photoshop when I can use gimp

[dingdongrb]

I agree, download it for free... That goes for music as well.

.....and why is it that a movie production costs 100 million USD? Well to begin with the star of the movie must make their 20+ million.....Hmmmmm

It's just as bad as having to pay $50 a seat (or more) to see a pro sport in the USA. Why because the stars of the teams make millions a year. We support this so we only have ourselves to blame.

Yeah, I may download movies and music, now please tell me how I can sneak in to see the Broncos or the Rockies play for free.....

[Misplaced]

download for free.

Most already do, but won't admit to it.

[Meridian007]

From the Bangkok Post

On the heels of a US decision on Thursday that kept Thailand on its special watch list of nations that fail to crack down on copyright and patent violations.

The Thai government is introducing new laws not to stop the Thais selling dvds, but to penalise the buyers and users (Farang) of pirated products and the commercial building landlords who ignore tenants who sell pirated goods.

According to Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot, the ministry has directed the Intellectual Property Department to draft legislation to cover penalties against buyers, users and possessors of products that violate copyrights or patents.

The new legislation would also aim to penalise flea market owners and department stores that lease their space or offices to those who sell pirated goods.

Only in our beloved Thailand

Well, that's it then. I guess they're closing MBK! (wow, imagine what would be left if you removed all the pirated material from MBK? You'd only have restaurants, the theatre, and index living mall left)

I doubt we'll see much of anything done, the streets will have their annual removal of the vendors for 2 weeks until everyone forgets and things go back to normal.

I wouldn't worry about it too much, stock up now, or try it a cheaper way:

Go to your local movie rental place, rent what you want to see (usually ~30baht per day), rip it to your computer (many ways to do it, just google it), buy some blank DVDs (usually ~ 8baht per disc), watch the movie, if you like it, burn it to disc.

There. Instead of paying 100baht per disc, you're only paying 38baht (or 225baht for the "buy 5, get 1 free" deal)

Or download it. The disc method is better because you won't have to clutter up your hd and leave your computer on for extended periods of time while it downloads.

Edited May 4, 2009 by Meridian007

[ozzieman05]

From the Bkk Post

Vendors clashed with Commerce Ministry officials in Bangkok on Wednesday night after they raided sellers’ booths to arrest them for intellectual property violations and confiscated their goods.

About 200 vendors and 50 commerce offiicials were involved.

Soon after the raid about 20 men armed with sticks assaulted the officials, injuring 10 of them, one seriously.

The men then fired four gunshots skywards to threaten the commerce officials, witness reports said. The situation improved after police arrived and Officials arrested about 10 sellers and made off with four vans loaded with confiscated conterfeit goods,

Later in the night hundreds of sellers marched to Bang Rak police station to file charges against the commerce officials.

Some sellers, covered in blood smears, told reporters they were assaulted by the raiding party.

Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot said on television programmes on Thursday morning that raids on sellers of pirate goods would take place every two days from now on.

[Oberkommando]

Sounds like another case of these vendors believing they are above the law, as well as the usual Thai law enforcement tactics of harassment, intimidation, bullying and ultimately, violence.