Fly on Corporate Wall

Workpoint Entertainment, which produces “Thailand’s Got Talent” for Channel 3, has a lot to learn about art, and specifically the problems that can arise when art is created with ladies’ bare breasts while young boys are watching.
And another thing: Boobs aside, there’s a small matter of copyright violation.
Pisces Music, which owns the song rights for the band Boy Thai, says neither Workpoint nor the young “artist” in question asked for its permission to use the Boy Thai tune “Andaman Sun” to accompany the mammary paint routine on television.
“We’re not very pleased that the music was used in an inappropriate way, or that the segment was uploaded to You-Tube and viewed more than 30,000 times,” Pisces managing director Amporn Chakkaphak declares. “We’re afraid people might misunderstand the band’s involvement.”
Amporn said Boy Thai music featured on the show once before, but permission was sought in advance and the copyright fee paid. Maybe Workpoint figured it could just keep on tapping Boy Thai.
Workpoint production manager Patcharin Butr-udom held belated negotiations with a band representative yesterday and things appeared to go well. Amporn tells us the process went beyond copyright issues. “They came to apologise,” she reports.
“We usually encourage people to use our songs to promote cultural activities and charge about Bt10,000 per song, but in this case, frankly, even if there had been a proper request, we wouldn’t have allowed the song to use for an act like that.”
The arguing parties agreed on two significant items. Workpoint will broadcast a statement on the show this Sunday that Boy Thai has nothing to do with girls painting pictures with their boobs, and it will pay “damage” costs above the copyright fee. “Sorry,” Amporn says, “but I can’t disclose the amount. It’s suitable, though, because the damage has been done.”
Amporn gives credit to Work-point for boosting Thai culture often in the past, but as for this debacle, she hopes it serves as a lesson for all TV producers that copyright can’t be taken for granted.
“Most people don’t know that violation is the criminal matter, not civil. Who knows – if a producer ignores that fact, they could end |up paying millions of dollars for using a Lady Gaga song without permission!”

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