In Thailand, copyright enforcement comes as a shock

[webfact]

In Thailand, Copyright Enforcement Comes as a Shock
Copyrights Come Into Fashion as Music Publisher Seeks Fees; Rap on Ownership
By JAMES HOOKWAY

PHRA PRADAENG, Thailand—The land of fake Rolex watches, knockoff DVDs and counterfeit Viagra is now discovering copyright, and it is coming as a bit of a shock for many Thais.

This laid-back Buddhist kingdom isn't exactly a bastion of intellectual property protection. All manner of knockoffs are available for sale on the neon-lit sidewalks of the capital, Bangkok, ensuring Thailand has a prominent place on numerous intellectual property blacklists. There is even a museum of counterfeit goods in downtown Bangkok.

This free-for-all extends to local music, too. Boonserm Panyasamphan says he doesn't mind if other bands play his group Turbo's best known hit, an erotically-charged footstomper called "I Have an Itchy Ear." He has made a living out of other people's songs for years as his traveling burlesque tours the country, complete with dancers decked out in tiaras and feather boas.

"We play whatever people want to hear," says Mr. Boonserm, who is 48 years old with a shock of black, spiky hair.

The country's largest music publisher would rather he didn't, though, not unless he pays an annual fee to play its songs.

Something similar happens in many countries, where broadcasters, live music venues and other establishments pay for the right to perform copyrighted songs. Now the Thai publisher, GMM Grammy, says its is preparing lawsuits to collect performance fees of up to $7,600 a year directly from artists to help offset losses from piracy and illegal downloads.

Full story: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304250204579433493214015678?mod=fox_australian&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304250204579433493214015678.html%3Fmod%3Dfox_australian

-- THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 2014-03-31

Edited March 31, 2014 by ubonjoe
corrected link

[Pib]

This laid-back Buddhist kingdom isn't exactly a bastion of intellectual property protection.

The understatement of the century.

[Costas2008]

Welcome to the real world, Thailand.

You have to learn that not everything is free for you.

Little hard to understand, but you will get used.

[kurtgruen]

The local Thai police in Chiang Mai has been way ahead of that game for many years now, bringing around fake Gema music agents and taking sometimes 20000-30000 Baht of Bar owners, who play downloaded music. Either that, or they keep all their computers and equipment. Of course, the artists, or the real company protecting the artists, has absolutely nothing to do with that.

[Why ask]

What beats me is that the likes of Rolex, GUCCI, Louis Vitton etc. haven't had their own investigators here for the last decade, to try to combine visits to Laos and Myanmar, and locate the large watch/bag/jeans factory producing all the fakes. So a Thai company is asking for royalties, because Thai bands now copy their ownership rights. Cobblers..... complete and utter rubbish if this gets anywhere. The BIB take the money to permit production...... as the BIB takes from everything else illegal.....

[JoeThePoster]

Time to ban The Wall Street Journal.

[sms747]

The article is specifically about music and there is no doubt the widespread pirating of albums costs the producers hundreds of millions of baht a year. Ironically the itchy ear song is not an original from Turbo, they pinched it from a top line diamond singer. Grammy are quite right to try and get people using their material to pay, it's not a charity!

Edited March 31, 2014 by sms747

[I knew this would happen]

What beats me is that the likes of Rolex, GUCCI, Louis Vitton etc. haven't had their own investigators here for the last decade, to try to combine visits to Laos and Myanmar, and locate the large watch/bag/jeans factory producing all the fakes. So a Thai company is asking for royalties, because Thai bands now copy their ownership rights. Cobblers..... complete and utter rubbish if this gets anywhere. The BIB take the money to permit production...... as the BIB takes from everything else illegal.....

Fake Rolex? There are no fake products in Thailand. YOU! Stop lying, Lady Gaga, stopy lying!! Stop insulting Thailand

As long as the big guys manage everything illegal here nothing will change. It just creates Karma and might backfire someday

[Tomtomtom69]

What beats me is that the likes of Rolex, GUCCI, Louis Vitton etc. haven't had their own investigators here for the last decade, to try to combine visits to Laos and Myanmar, and locate the large watch/bag/jeans factory producing all the fakes. So a Thai company is asking for royalties, because Thai bands now copy their ownership rights. Cobblers..... complete and utter rubbish if this gets anywhere. The BIB take the money to permit production...... as the BIB takes from everything else illegal.....

I think you mean China and Vietnam. Neither Laos nor Myanmar manufacture much of anything (though that may start to change soon in Myanmar's case). I have been to both countries many times and can guarantee you almost everything sold in the markets in Laos is imported - the only exceptions are local clothing and textiles but even there you have to be careful as substitutions with cheap Chinese and Vietnamese imports are made and tried to be sold off as the real deal. In Myanmar there is a slightly higher chance of finding something local, but again, most items, real or fake are likely to be imported.

[Thai at Heart]

This laid-back Buddhist kingdom isn't exactly a bastion of intellectual property protection.

The understatement of the century.

This is a contradiction. They are actually deadly serious about breaking intellectual property law.

[mickba]

Anybody else having problems with.................... ?

[liddelljohn]

Most of the best fake watches are actually manufactured in Turkey not China or thailand asia and contain Japanese movements

[bigbamboo]

If Thai performers had to pay every time they played Hotel California some of those Eagles' fortunes would rival Bill Gates'.

[GAZZPA]

What beats me is that the likes of Rolex, GUCCI, Louis Vitton etc. haven't had their own investigators here for the last decade, to try to combine visits to Laos and Myanmar, and locate the large watch/bag/jeans factory producing all the fakes. So a Thai company is asking for royalties, because Thai bands now copy their ownership rights. Cobblers..... complete and utter rubbish if this gets anywhere. The BIB take the money to permit production...... as the BIB takes from everything else illegal.....

Really? Well the reason is that these companies have global patents are are protected under copyright law. They will report it to the police but never put themselves at risk by visiting or tracking down the factories that make it, you could end up at the bottom of the ocean.

[Lupatria]

This is only the first tiny little shock wave. I'm waiting for the tsunami heading for the shores when ASEAN takes place...

[Why ask]

This is only the first tiny little shock wave. I'm waiting for the tsunami heading for the shores when ASEAN takes place...

Yeah! We won't have to go to Aranyaphratet market anymore. The streets will be flooded with even cheaper copies, and possibly better quality.

[upena]

Would love to see any Thai Government office raided and have the cops reveal what software is on the computers.

[allan michaud]

I must say I don't have a lot of sympathy with the music industry in general as the fees they charge are outrageous. I inquired about using some of CCR's famous Vietnam War era song "Run Through the Jungle" for a documentary I am working on. The fee I was quoted was USD30,000 to use just 15 seconds of the song and this was only for a 3 year period. After that I would have had to re license the track again or cut if from the doco. Considering the doco would cost less than half that to make I found the fee ludicrous.

[silent]

Would love to see any Thai Government office raided and have the cops reveal what software is on the computers.

Once again. Personally I'd love to see any Government office raided or properly inventoried.

[Cricketnut]

This laid-back Buddhist kingdom isn't exactly a bastion of intellectual property protection.

The understatement of the century.

Don't worry everyone, the story is FAKE!

Sent from my i-mobile i-STYLE 8.2 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[hansnl]

What beats me is that the likes of Rolex, GUCCI, Louis Vitton etc. haven't had their own investigators here for the last decade, to try to combine visits to Laos and Myanmar, and locate the large watch/bag/jeans factory producing all the fakes. So a Thai company is asking for royalties, because Thai bands now copy their ownership rights. Cobblers..... complete and utter rubbish if this gets anywhere. The BIB take the money to permit production...... as the BIB takes from everything else illegal.....

Really? Well the reason is that these companies have global patents are are protected under copyright law. They will report it to the police but never put themselves at risk by visiting or tracking down the factories that make it, you could end up at the bottom of the ocean.

Right, just what I thought.

Can anybody please explain to me why the taxpayer, by paying the policeman's wages, ultimate has to pay police actions to protect big companies who let you pay way to much for a product that is not better as anything else on the market?

Why should the taxpayer pay for helping companies to make more profit?

If some company brings something on the market and other people are copying that, it is the companies business to do something about it, NOT the taxpayer!

Or said company should make something very good, original, strong, fantastic and not suitable for copying.

And not making things that are not really fantastic but only "wishable" because of some funny name.

[sms747]

The copyright thing has always seemed a bit like the kettle calling the pot black to me.

Most of the time these guys don't write the songs themselves. They pay a pittance to other talented people and then make millions themselves for doing nothing. A bit like bill gates and microsoft.

Really, can you give us some examples, or just the one where a song writer in Thailand has paid somebody a pittance for a song then made millions from it?

[sms747]

I must say I don't have a lot of sympathy with the music industry in general as the fees they charge are outrageous. I inquired about using some of CCR's famous Vietnam War era song "Run Through the Jungle" for a documentary I am working on. The fee I was quoted was USD30,000 to use just 15 seconds of the song and this was only for a 3 year period. After that I would have had to re license the track again or cut if from the doco. Considering the doco would cost less than half that to make I found the fee ludicrous.

Too much, so why not use a Viet or Thai track at a fraction of what those greedy westerners wanted?

[laobali]

This is only the first tiny little shock wave. I'm waiting for the tsunami heading for the shores when ASEAN takes place...

ASEAN is hardly Armageddon. It will be another non-event.

[skorchio]

I think the music industry has taken the piss out of artists and audiences alike for decades. It is time for the record companies to suck it up and tke the losses. In a few yrs they wont exist as bands will promote their material independently over our world's new media channels.

[bangon04]

This laid-back Buddhist kingdom isn't exactly a bastion of intellectual property protection.

The understatement of the century.

Actually it is not the same rules when Thai movies are being copied. The bootleggers are much less likely to risk broken legs by ripping off their compatriates' intellectual ghost story of the week or the latest Katoey/Dwarf comedy offering... similarly a Grammy CD usually does not get bootlegged until a period of waiting has been observed.

Edited March 31, 2014 by bangon04

[MaxYakov]

I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you, to hear that a law is threatened to be enforced in Thailand.

[tingtongteesood]

"I think the record labels should let people sing whatever songs they like," said one fan, 45-year-old Damrong Lapoh. "It's like free advertising."

Backstage, Sodsai Rungpothong, at 62 one of the grandees of the scene, argued that point, too, saying that traveling Mor Lam bands help popularize GMM Grammy's songs. "We are all Thai. Can't we just get along?" he said.

As usual some people think the rules of the rest of the world should not apply to them because they are special.

Why should you make money performing other people's songs ? Write something original and perform your own work or get a proper job.

I wish all copyright laws would be enforced here, though if that happened, unemployment would suddenly rise 10% !

Edited April 1, 2014 by Rooo
font

[sms747]

I think the music industry has taken the piss out of artists and audiences alike for decades. It is time for the record companies to suck it up and tke the losses. In a few yrs they wont exist as bands will promote their material independently over our world's new media channels.

We are talking about THAI music here and did you know GMM and R Siam sell back catalogue albums, not very old, at around 45 baht, what a rip off huh! Bands promoting their material on the Internet, they will really make a fortune then, where will the income be?

[sms747]

This laid-back Buddhist kingdom isn't exactly a bastion of intellectual property protection.

The understatement of the century.

Actually it is not the same rules when Thai movies are being copied. The bootleggers are much less likely to risk broken legs by ripping off their compatriates' intellectual ghost story of the week or the latest Katoey/Dwarf comedy offering... similarly a Grammy CD usually does not get bootlegged until a period of waiting has been observed.

Absolutely not true on all points