Dmca With A Thai Host

[jcw]

I am yet to see a Thai hosting company with a equivient of a DMCA procedure published.

Mods, I am not going to post the name of the site, so please do not ask.

I have ever I have had image stolen that was clearly under copyright. It also has faces in it that the thief 100% does not have a model release. This is a Commercial site trying to flog day tours and get a commission from hotels and Adsense. It is a .com and it is hosted in Thailand by a Thai host. In their terms they say,

Governing Law Item #8

"Any claim relating to Internet Thailand Public Company Limited's web site shall be governed by the laws of Thailand without regard to its conflict of law provisions."

As Thailand has signed to the Berne Convention, this site is clearly violating Thai law. They have a contact us page, and have ignored my request to remove the image. Before I contact the Thai host, does any one know about a Thai DMCA procudure?

[MKAsok]

Step 1: Send cease and desist notice (in Thai) to offending website and their ISP threatening criminal and/or civil complaint(s).

Step 2: If ignored file criminal and/or civil complaint(s) - (see relevant provisions of Copyright Act B.E. 2537).

[Tywais]

This report is 2010 and haven't heard if any progress has been made.

Prospects Dim for Copyright Legislation Anytime Soon: While earlier in 2010 it appeared broad-based copyright legislation was being prepared for movement through the Thai Executive toward introduction in the Parliament, this now seems a distant possibility. It has not been mentioned in recent Royal Thai Government documents such as the Out-of-Cycle Review submission of December 2010. IIPA understands that the draft is still being reviewed by the Ministry of Commerce.

The draft contains important elements for effective copyright protection in the country, including 1) definition of “communication to the public” to ensure Thailand provides a WCT- and WPPT-compatible right of “making available to the public of works in such a way that members of the public may access works from a place and at a time individually chosen by them,” 2) amendment of the definition of “reproduction” to unambiguously cover reproductions in digital form (although it is unclear whether the amended definition expressly includes “temporary” reproductions), 3) inclusion of provisions concerning technological protection measures (TPMs) and the imposition of penalties against offenders (although it is unclear whether the amendment would define TPM to include both access controls as well as copy controls, and whether the act of circumvention as well as trafficking in circumvention devices, technologies, or components, or providing a circumvention service, would be covered, among other questions), 4) inclusion of provisions concerning ISP liability which we understand would be a DMCA-type notice and takedown procedure (although it is unclear what measures are put into place to deal with the non-hosted environment). There are other provisions in the draft law which need to be tailored to the needs of specific industries, or provisions that need to be clarified that are not currently addressed.²⁹

Source - IIPA Thailand (pdf)