A Question Of Legality

[thaimite]

I have been led to believe that is against Thailand's ISP policy to allow Proxy servers etc.

However if I was to have remote access to another machine outside of the Kingdom which I could monitor / browse using Windows remote desktop or a 3rd party product such as YOICS This machine could in theory also let me browse the internet, send emails etc without going through Thai filters, would I be breaking the law?

I hope I am not breaking forum rules by posing this question, but would appreciate the opinion of the experts (or ex-spurts) out their.

Currently I am considering using a remote desktop product to help my elderly mother when she has computer issues back in the UK.

[monty]

I think nobody really could give you a straight answer, or at least an answer which would reflect reality and/or practicality!

Basically the internet crime act ordered all ISP's to keep track of all the websites and IP addresses their subscribers visit, time stamp them and keep them in logs for a certain time.

They even went so far as to order everybody who allows anybody else to access the internet through their connection to do the same, whether they are an internet cafe, library, school or a company.

Basically to allow the investigators to trace back any illegal activity all the way back to the actual perpetrator (and not only to the ISP's subscriber).

And in your case what you would do would block out those investigators.

Let's say you post something illegal on a Thai based website, the investigators would end up at your elderly mother's computer, instead of yours! And as bad an offense you might have done, chances are slim that the foreign ISP (your mum's) would help out tracing whoever might have been the real perpetrator. The serious offense in Thailand might not even be an offense at all in your mum's location!

As such they inserted a rule that makes it illegal to hide or spoof your IP address (the one assigned to you by your ISP), and for all means and purposes, a proxy, or probably even the remote desktop procedure does exactly that. Show the outside world another IP address as the one which is assigned to you.

Then again, as long as you are not doing something illegal I doubt you'll get into trouble

But yep, in general it could be considered illegal!

[monty]

And out of Thaivisa's point of view, we can discuss whether all those rule are fair/unfair etc, we just cannot discusshow to go about doing those things which are likely illegal, as silly as the laws might sound!

[Crushdepth]

A couple of years back (don't ask me to find it), the ICT Minister of the day clarified that using a proxy is in itself legal, so long as you are using it for a legitimate purpose. The ministry recognised that proxies do in fact have legitimate applications.

HOWEVER, he also clarified that it is the use of a proxy to *deliberately circumvent government censorship controls* or to mask other illegal activities that is illegal. So basically proxies are not illegal, but certain applications of proxies are (you can own a gun but not use it to hold up your local 7-11).

But practically speaking, there's always the risk that some overzealous government official will misinterpret any discussion about proxies as being for illegal purposes (and lets face it, they often are). This makes Thaivisa and anyone else with half a brain wary about allowing any form of discussion about proxies on their website, because nobody wants to get their site blacklisted.

So I fully understand the reluctance of TV to allow proxy discussion on this board, good intentioned or not.

[thaimite]

Many thanks everybodyfor the informed and enlightening comments.

As stated my current uses are mainly to help my mother with her PC, but I am also considering setting up my home PC here in Thailand so as I can access it from abroad whilst working away on projects

[dominique355]

Does that make VPN illegal?

[Tywais]

Does that make VPN illegal?

That one is the exception. There are also Thai companies offering VPN such as Astaro.

Thailand's military government also passed a Computer-Related Crimes Act (PDF) with draconian penalties and onerous data retention provisions abnegating privacy and anonymity and chilling public discussion of vital issues among Thais. The result of this cybercrime law was to criminalise circumvention with one notable exception, the Virtual Private Networks (VPN) relied on by business to create a secure, private, encrypted channel.

Global Voices

Thailand Computer Crimes Act (pdf)

[Tywais]

To add to my post above. Nearly all modern versions of Windows has VPN capability built into it and as such would be difficult for the government to say you can't have VPN software. The law comes into effect if VPN is used for illegal purposes, though would be difficult to determine as they would normally be through encrypted channels.

[sniffdog]

Note that Remote Desktops are in general quite slow ... If your server isn't speedy, you might reconsidering surfing on a RD.