Copyright violations: US expected to upgrade Thai status in annual review

[webfact]

US expected to upgrade Thai status in annual review
PETCHANET PRATRUANGKRAI
THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- THE United States is likely to upgrade Thailand's trade status on intellectual property awareness this year following the junta's successful attempts to crack down on copyright violations, the Commerce Ministry has said.

The US Trade Representative was to announce its annual review yesterday (April 30, US time) under the Special 301 measure of the adequacy and effectiveness of intellectual-property rights (IPR) protection by US trade partners.

Deputy Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said Thailand was expected to be upgraded from the Priority Watch List (PWL) to the Watch List (WL) due to its efforts to protect intellectual property rights. The government has also made strenuous efforts to raise IPR awareness and enforce many related laws.

Thailand has been downgraded to the PWL since 2007 and has remained at that level as it struggled to manage IPR problems, meaning exports to the United States might be subject to high duties or barriers.

Apiradi said that during the past few years, the government has made an effort to raise IPR awareness. Two new laws related to IPR protection on copyright protection and anti-camcorder acts have been announced in the Royal Gazette since February 5, and would be enforced in 180 days, in the case of the first law, and 60 days, in the case of the second.

Thailand has also drawn up a plan to suppress IPR violations and had national strategies on intellectual property rights between 2012 and 2016.

In addition, to facilitate innovators, the Intellectual Property Department has also adopted an e-system to enable people to register copyright and patent online.

Thailand has also worked closely with the US under Thai-US Creative Partnership to crack down on intellectual infringement on the Internet as well as raise awareness on IPR among the young generation.

Last year, Thailand has also reported that it has filed more than 4,000 cases on intellectual property right violation to the civil and criminal courts.

Meanwhile, the Economic Crime Police yesterday issued a statement that they were stepping up efforts to reduce the number of companies violating software copyright laws by setting up a hotline, website and social media channels for the public to report illegal software in the workplace.

Since last year, police have raided more than 50 companies who allegedly used illegal and unlicensed software, and several of the most recent raids took place because of information given to police by people through digital media.

The use of digital and social media for investigations is growing. The tips collected are sometimes anonymous - but contain enough details about the use of illegal and unlicensed software for police to investigate.

All of these tips are about large companies that have enough resources to use legal software.

Generally, these companies fail to take necessary steps to ensure they use only legal software. In some cases, management willingly violates the law by choosing illegal software.

Crackdown on four

Social media led to police actions against four companies in the last two weeks.

The first was a distributor of washroom decoration materials located in Bangkok. The company has annual revenue of Bt600 million. Unlicensed software found on its 46 computers was worth about Bt2.5 million.

The second was an engineering and graphic design service provider with annual revenue of Bt267 million. The infringement value of unlicensed software installed on 35 computers was Bt3.4 million.

The third company, owned by Thai shareholders, was found using Bt18 million worth of unlicensed software on its PCs. This is the highest value raid of the year.

The fourth company was a design firm in Bangkok using Bt4.5 million worth of unlicensed software.

All together, these companies were found using unlicensed software on 136 PCs.

This follows a raid last month of a company with registered assets of Bt1 billion in Chacheongsao.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/US-expected-to-upgrade-Thai-status-in-annual-revie-30259112.html


-- The Nation 2015-05-01

[NongKhaiKid]

Another Thai statement on behalf of another country, let's wait to see what the US says.

[EricBerg]

Meanwhile the thousands of market stalls all over the country keep selling the pirated dvd's and software. Thousands would become jobless if authories really would mean business in fighting piracy. Therefore this form of copyright infringement will go on undisturbed.

[arthurboy]

'Thailand remains on the Priority Watch List in 2015. At the same time, IPR enforcement does not seem to be a top priority for Thai law enforcement and poor coordination among government entities has seen limited improvement despite the launch of the National IPR Center of Enforcement in 2013.'

https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/2015-Special-301-Report-FINAL.pdf pages 44-45.

So much for Deputy Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn's blowhard rhetoric.

You would think that a government minister would know the reality of what's going on and what's likely to happen before making such a patently wrong statement.

But I guess not.

[mca]

The Commerce Ministry apologised for not having a factsheet to hand out to the assembled press because their moody copy of Microsoft Office kept crashing every time they tried to print it.

Edited May 1, 2015 by mca

[NeverSure]

The OP talks about software. I didn't know there was any legal software in Thailand.

But, the watch group is talking about playing pirated music, having pirated consumer items, pharmaceuticals...

Thailand is on the watch list for the 9th year in a row and the people quoted in the OP are blowhards.

[Strangebrew]

Bet you can walk in to MBK now and get any software you want all pirated.

[Strangebrew]

Thailand remains on the Priority Watch List in 2015 Need I say more.

[madmitch]

If the journalist had waited a day he could have saved himself a lot of work.

[metisdead]

A post containing content copy and pasted from Bangkok Post has been removed as well as a reply.

26) The Bangkok Post and Phuketwan do not allow quotes from their news articles or other material to appear on Thaivisa.com. Neither do they allow links to their publications. Posts from members containing quotes from or links to Bangkok Post or Phuketwan publications will be deleted from the forum.

[BudRight]

Every time this happens I'm perplexed why there is no loss of face, and the thought 'hey, maybe I shouldn't have opened my mouth. Yeah that was dumb. I think next time I'll shut up so I don't look stupid like last time.'

It reminds me when a bird almost knocked itself out flying into my window, got up and flew right into the window again.

Edited May 1, 2015 by BudRight

[Anthony5]

I see another statement of disappointment with the US coming soon

[Anthony5]

Apiradi said that during the past few years, the government has made an effort to raise IPR awareness. Two new laws related to IPR protection on copyright protection and anti-camcorder acts have been announced in the Royal Gazette since February 5, and would be enforced in 180 days, in the case of the first law, and 60 days, in the case of the second.

And what does that mean to the US in making a status upgrade for Thailand. Don't you think they are aware that a law on paper means shit all in Thailand.

[quandow]

I actually TRIED to get a legal copy of XP some years ago at Pantip. Not a legal copy to be found!

[lovetotravel]

Hard to enforce laws when the police profit off breaking them.

[wabothai]

Happened to me years ago:

I needed an Asian roadmap chip for my handheld GPS device. In Europe very expensive. So I tried to find it at the electonics mall in Bangkok. It was not to be found. However:

the salesman of some shop got a new GPS out of it's box, took out the chip and uploaded it into his computer and copied it onto a new chip for 1300 baht.

No Ploblem.

[DLock]

Congratulations Thailand.

Only 1 more year and you will have been on the worst IP offender list for 10 straight years. That's quite an achievement.

...but somehow, I'm pretty sure you will be celebrating 20 years on the list in another 11 years.

You are certainly getting on a lot of lists these days....all for the wrong reasons.

I guess "Thainess" isn't as universal as you thought.

[FangFerang]

I am a writer and software designer, so I am usually touchy about intellectual property rights.

Nonetheless, the US allows medicines that are essential to be orphaned by manufacturers, many of whom merely synthesized a natural substance derived from plants -- and the pharmaceutical companies are much more interested in prolonged treatments rather than cures or botanical products. The US allows medical procedures to be copyrighted, making it that fellow surgeons must pay a fee to the surgeon who patented the technique. The US even allows intellectual property rights to apply in regards to work flow methods which are egregiously unoriginal. The US regulators even allowed a trademark for a rice packager, not a grower by any means, with the name brand "Jasmine Rice", which is now a protected term for a US rice distributor. Just as Mc(anything) is vigorously attacked by McDonalds in a court where money, not justice, decides the outcome. The US has allowed intellectual property laws to circumvent the public welfare entirely. Screw that.

In some uses of intellectual property rights, like all those above, I simply believe the issue has become fallacious and counter-productive, as well as inhumane and utterly amoral.

Edited May 1, 2015 by FangFerang

[GinBoy2]

It was only a matter of time until someone decided to wheel out the "America should clean up itself before criticizing Thailand' garbage. I swear to God, if the US government criticized child sex trafficking in Thailand one of you moron's would jump to the usual deflection of somehow tying to any even worse problem in the US!

Sort of gets old on here, could we just discuss Thailand rather than seem obsessed with your US hatred and/or envy? Do that on a US forum, debatepolitics.com will fit that bill nicely, all sorts of left vs right ranting by the crazies.

Edited May 1, 2015 by GinBoy2

[lovetotravel]

I am a writer and software designer, so I am usually touchy about intellectual property rights.

Nonetheless, the US allows medicines that are essential to be orphaned by manufacturers, many of whom merely synthesized a natural substance derived from plants -- and the pharmaceutical companies are much more interested in prolonged treatments rather than cures or botanical products. The US allows medical procedures to be copyrighted, making it that fellow surgeons must pay a fee to the surgeon who patented the technique. The US even allows intellectual property rights to apply in regards to work flow methods which are egregiously unoriginal. The US regulators even allowed a trademark for a rice packager, not a grower by any means, with the name brand "Jasmine Rice", which is now a protected term for a US rice distributor. Just as Mc(anything) is vigorously attacked by McDonalds in a court where money, not justice, decides the outcome. The US has allowed intellectual property laws to circumvent the public welfare entirely. Screw that.

In some uses of intellectual property rights, like all those above, I simply believe the issue has become fallacious and counter-productive, as well as inhumane and utterly amoral.

Don't 100% agree with your comments. Because of competition, if one pharma invented a drug that eliminated prolonged treatments, they'd probably get rich. And it's been done before. Not unusual.

With regards to medical procedures having a patent, I don't think so. A law in 1996 allows any doctor to do any procedure without infringement issues. I believe Clinton was responsible for that law. If a device is used, then absolutely, it can have a patent. Like pacemakers. But that makes sense.

http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/medical-procedure-exception-to-patent-infringement.html

Not sure about jasmine rice either. When in the US, there are dozens of different brands of Jasmine rice.

https://sg.images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A2oKmKMmE0NV0GcAIGAj4gt.;_ylu=X3oDMTB0N2poMXRwBGNvbG8Dc2czBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNwaXZz?p=jasmine+rice+us+grocery+store+picture&fr=chr-yo_gc&fr2=piv-web

As for Mc, that makes sense. It is 100% related to their company.

So as a writer, it's OK if I take your book, put it on piratebay, and let others obtain it for free??? Or do you feel you have a right to protect your creation?

[webfact]

Thailand is likely to remain on the U.S. PWL list



BANGKOK, 1 May 2015, (NNT) - The Ministry of Commerce has revealed that the United States Trade Representative (USTR) will soon release its updated Special 301 Report, which includes a watch list of nations with high levels of copyright infringement activities.

The ministry expected Thailand to remain in the Priority Watch List (PWL) for the eighth year in a row. The ministry claimed that the U.S. considered Thailand’s efforts to combat copyright infringement to be insufficient. The judgment was based on the Kingdom’s relaxed punishment for Intellectual Property offenders and the number of counterfeit goods still on the market.

Deputy Commerce Minister Apiradee Tantraporn said that since the U.S. placed the Kingdom in its watch list in 2007, Thailand had been working to address the issue. She cited two regulations related to copyright infringement that have been amended and enforced.

Ms. Apiradee said that officials have pushed forward in eradicating copyright infringement goods in high-risk areas, such as Khlong Thom Market in Bangkok. She added that authorities recently incinerated 1,300 tons of contraband.

The Deputy Commerce Minister revealed that another measure the Kingdom has taken to crack down on copyright infringement is the reduced turnover to register intellectual property from 24 months to 12 months. More than 4,000 cases of copyright infringement have been legally processed in 2014.

Ms. Apiradee expressed her hope that the U.S. would acknowledge the improvements made by the Kingdom and remove the nation from the PWL soon.


-- NNT 2015-05-01

[chainarong]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

I actually TRIED to get a legal copy of XP some years ago at Pantip. Not a legal copy to be found!

I got a windows 7 at Phitsanulok , because the original expired after 60 days, they gave me a Demo , cost the same as OZ, so you can understand why the cheap pirated version, sort of reflects back to the whole of Thailand "Cheap".

[SoilSpoil]

It was only a matter of time until someone decided to wheel out the "America should clean up itself before criticizing Thailand' garbage. I swear to God, if the US government criticized child sex trafficking in Thailand one of you moron's would jump to the usual deflection of somehow tying to any even worse problem in the US!

Sort of gets old on here, could we just discuss Thailand rather than seem obsessed with your US hatred and/or envy? Do that on a US forum, debatepolitics.com will fit that bill nicely, all sorts of left vs right ranting by the crazies.

Its the US who makes this review, not? Although I fully agree that Thailand should be on such a list, I also find the US government extremely immoral and hypocritical with, for example, its IP protection of plants and seeds of companies such as Monsanto. So yes, if the big bully wants to lecture others, it should at least have its own house clean. Judge not others lest ye be judged.

[grumbleweed]

I work at a Thai government school: 60 computers, need I say anymore?

[GinBoy2]

It was only a matter of time until someone decided to wheel out the "America should clean up itself before criticizing Thailand' garbage. I swear to God, if the US government criticized child sex trafficking in Thailand one of you moron's would jump to the usual deflection of somehow tying to any even worse problem in the US!

Sort of gets old on here, could we just discuss Thailand rather than seem obsessed with your US hatred and/or envy? Do that on a US forum, debatepolitics.com will fit that bill nicely, all sorts of left vs right ranting by the crazies.

Its the US who makes this review, not? Although I fully agree that Thailand should be on such a list, I also find the US government extremely immoral and hypocritical with, for example, its IP protection of plants and seeds of companies such as Monsanto. So yes, if the big bully wants to lecture others, it should at least have its own house clean. Judge not others lest ye be judged.

Then start a new thread talking about the excess' of Monsanto. I'm not against criticism of the US, except when it's conflated with real issues in Thailand and used as, what some seem to think, as a way to deflect and mitigate any negative news du jour.