Selling secondhand CDs/DVDs/books illegal?

[SlyAnimal]

My gf and I were having a discussion about selling secondhand DVDs and books etc, as she was amazed that my brother was able to sell some of my old DVDs on trademe (nz equivalent of ebay)

She said that apparently in Thailand if you sell secondhand goods which are copyrighted (e.g. Music, movies & books), you can get arrested.

I laughed at the thought, but she was adamant and even said that apparently a Thai guy, living in the USA, was arrested for selling an engineering book on eBay.

Which did make me think that maybe there's 3 answers:

1/ She's completely wrong and hasn't heard the full story about the incidents she mentioned

2/ The people she heard of being arrested/fined were selling fake goods, or operating as a business but without a license. As they're then not paying money to the police/mafia, maybe the mafia notified the police?

3/ There might be some restrictions on selling goods, like businesses requiring an exclusive re-sellers license or similar?

Anyway I was curious and wondered if any of you guys had heard of something like this before. My gf is almost always right, and reminds me of it if I don't heed her advice, so I don't want to dismiss her argument out of hand lol.

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[wym]

No she's wrong.

Maybe she heard about the guy that was going through the courts defending his right to sell within the US textbooks that had been printed for sale outside the US at lower prices?

Not sure how that came out, but not relevant to what you're talking about I don't think.

Do you mean stuff bought legitimately sold within Thailand?

Buying IP sold here and selling it back home might get you into hot water, but not once-off genuine second-hand I would think, just buying wholesale selling retail maybe. . .

[kkerry]

There was a Thai man in Bangkok a few years ago selling some of his CD or DVD collection for some insignificant amount on a walkway who got arrested. It was reported in the news at the time, and I don't mean for selling a certain DVD either.

[SlyAnimal]

I'm not sure what the specifics were, she just looked up a Thai forum though which seemed to confirm her theory though.

I assume that it'd be some kind of miscommunication though, and that it'd actually be selling items from the wrong region or a tax issue. But it's a small thing so I'm not going to bother looking too hard, just figured I'd ask and see if other ppl had heard of the same thing at all

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[kkerry]

here you go...

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/08/19/national/Police-campaign-to-warn-public-on-VCD-selling-30136146.html

[partington]

It is not clear from the Nation article quoted what law is actually being referred to when the item is DVDs, and why the sales are apparently illegal.

There are very many well known second hand book shops in Bangkok, so this is certainly false if applied to books.

For example:

http://www.dasabookcafe.com/