Big spike in seizures of unlicensed, illegal software

[snoop1130]

Big spike in seizures of unlicensed, illegal software
The Nation

THAILAND -- In the first 11 months of the year, the Economic Crime Suppression Division seized nearly Bt500 million worth of unlicensed and illegal software at 214 businesses, almost 20 per cent higher than 2014.

This indicates that corporations need a better understanding about the Copyright Act, the associated legal penalties for infringements and the critical implications to their businesses, ECD said.

This year, ECD police added more channels for the public to report the use of unlicensed and illegal software at workplaces, including through social media.

"Use of unlicensed and illegal software is a crime, and is therefore unacceptable. Thai software developers are among those hurt by softwarepiracy," ECD deputy commander Colonel Dr Kittisak Plathong said.

"We are enforcing the rule of law to protect software developers' intellectualproperty rights. We encourage the senior management of businesses to understand that softwarelicensing audits should be an essential component of corporate risk management and must be conducted periodically to ensure that they will not have to encounter the risks associated with using unlicensed and illegal software, including legal action."

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Big-spike-in-seizures-of-unlicensed-illegal-softwa-30275218.html

-- The Nation 2015-12-18

[NeverSure]

More noise. The few schools I've been into in Thailand have pirated copies of Windows on the computers.

[SpaceKadet]

Perhaps they should clean their own house first...

[2fishin2]

Noise, pure noise from a lawless society

[Srikcir]

"almost 20 per cent higher than 2014."

Reflects an understanding by businesses that the economy is collapsing, revenues cannot sustain the cost of a legitimate business and capital is very tight. This crackdown-of-the-month may actually do more harm to the economy than good.

[Pakaty]

Kudos for protecting intellectual property rights! Just like they do for the Thai/foreign music licenses bars must pay for so that the artists get their fair cut.

Oh wait no, the artists don't get a single Baht. Who gets that money? The powers that be, and they are still using bootleg Windows XP

[TheCruncher]

More noise. The few schools I've been into in Thailand have pirated copies of Windows on the computers.

Read the OP again to understand what they are up to.

Thai software developers are among those hurt by softwarepiracy," ECD deputy commander Colonel Dr Kittisak Plathong said.

[jacky54]

They have Thai software developers ? wow how come no Thai website seems to work correctly, with the exception of Lazada?

[alfalfa19]

"This indicates that corporations need a better understanding about the Copyright Act, the associated legal penalties for infringements and the critical implications to their businesses, ECD said."

in actuality, it indicates that merchants need to adhere to their payment schedule.

[Pib]

Blah...blah...blah...and I almost choked from laughter reading below police colonel's comment...while saying it he was probably thinking "such BS I speak."

"We are enforcing the rule of law to protect software developers' intellectual property rights."

[Lupatria]

Are Fortune Town and Panthip Plaza closed today?

This is going on for years:

now you see it

now you don't

and next week you see it again- somewhere else.

Edited December 19, 2015 by Lupatria

[cmiuc]

A friend of mine visited Microsoft Thailand a few months back to propose an idea... Microsoft's stand is in Thailand is that they are not caring if people pirate their software, because of the red tape that they must go through to stop companies, not to mention home users. As "Never Sure" stated, all the schools I've taught at as an IT teacher, all the software is illegal...." schools don't want to spend money on software, and proposing to my school that they could have free software for at least one year, they scoffed at the idea, and after stating that eventually they will have problems with the old software(xp n win7) they stated they will worry about that later because they weren't worried about the current year of free, they were worried the next year if they would have to spend money on software... so unless the MOE/OBEC and company enforces their schools to be legal... it's a waste of time spending any resources on stopping it in this country... educating is better than confiscating... but no one cares about that in this system...

[mike324]

A friend of mine visited Microsoft Thailand a few months back to propose an idea... Microsoft's stand is in Thailand is that they are not caring if people pirate their software, because of the red tape that they must go through to stop companies, not to mention home users. As "Never Sure" stated, all the schools I've taught at as an IT teacher, all the software is illegal...." schools don't want to spend money on software, and proposing to my school that they could have free software for at least one year, they scoffed at the idea, and after stating that eventually they will have problems with the old software(xp n win7) they stated they will worry about that later because they weren't worried about the current year of free, they were worried the next year if they would have to spend money on software... so unless the MOE/OBEC and company enforces their schools to be legal... it's a waste of time spending any resources on stopping it in this country... educating is better than confiscating... but no one cares about that in this system...

That is not true, I've known 3 folks in my industry who had their offices searched by Microsoft with police by the side. They were fined very heavily depending on the number of computer, one guy was fined over 1 million baht. Microsoft does take an very active role at cracking down on piracy. I've heard the same for 3D software as well, the authorize distributor go after companies. Often times a company will be caught because ex-employees report the company in.

Perhaps its harder for Microsoft to go after the pirates because they often times back by the police or folks who own the building such as Pantip and Fortune. Hence the police don't search those places, they may do so once or twice per year as a "crack down" to show the US that the police are taking care of the issue and to improve their ranking regarding to counterfeit programs.

Windows is actually pretty affordable if you buy corporate licenses. My company bought around 15 licenses, but our IT person said you can actually activate it on more than 15 devices.

[Bench499d]

Windows is actually pretty affordable if you buy corporate licenses. My company bought around 15 licenses, but our IT person said you can actually activate it on more than 15 devices.

At which point it may become illegal again. You can only buy UPGRADE licenses and software assurance for Windows desktop operating systems through volume licensing, the computer you assign the license to must already have a valid retail or OEM Windows license.

The reason you can activate them on more than 15 computers is that you can buy one license and use the key to exercise the imaging rights, ie. reinstall one pre-activated image on several computers which are already separately licensed.

[retarius]

Instead of software why not focus your policing efforts on slavery in the fishing industry? (Sorry if it is a bit off topic, but one wonders at the priorities of the justice system.)

[mike324]

Windows is actually pretty affordable if you buy corporate licenses. My company bought around 15 licenses, but our IT person said you can actually activate it on more than 15 devices.

At which point it may become illegal again. You can only buy UPGRADE licenses and software assurance for Windows desktop operating systems through volume licensing, the computer you assign the license to must already have a valid retail or OEM Windows license.

The reason you can activate them on more than 15 computers is that you can buy one license and use the key to exercise the imaging rights, ie. reinstall one pre-activated image on several computers which are already separately licensed.

Not sure on the details, but it was XP operating system - we've been using for years now and it does not expired, just the support is over as they move on to the newer versions. Not sure why you say it becomes illegal again.

When we bought it, we did not need a valid or retail oem windows license because the sales even said you can use the bootleg copy to activate it, though the bootleg copy may not be the best copy to activate it under. But we have a genuine disk that we use to install on all computers then activate using the license - perhaps its the imaging rights thing you are talking about as we only have one key.

[Ulic]

Anyone who has bought a laptop any ware in Thailand should know the software is pirated.

If you ask they will confirm it willingly. You pay an extra 3-4 thousand baht for authentic

software. Even then you are not sure what you have. Buyer beware is all I can say.

[Somtamnication]

More noise. The few schools I've been into in Thailand have pirated copies of Windows on the computers.

Add immigration, land office, drivers licence offices and miscellaneous governmental agencies. My God, if the intellectual rights cops raided these folks, they would go back to smoke and throwing coconuts as communication devices.

[snowgard]

They have Thai software developers ? wow how come no Thai website seems to work correctly, with the exception of Lazada?

Lazada isn't a Thai website. It is a branch from Rocket Internet, Germany. In Europe their Shopping website is called Zalando.

[cyberfarang]

Copied and pirated software has been available in Thailand since as far back I can remember. In fact it came as part of the package when computers started to hit Thailand 14 years ago.

Has it really taken all this time for the Thai software developers to realise they are being hurt by software piracy? Silly Billy`s.