Anti-piracy crackdown unabated despite US move

“Our efforts will remain there to ensure piracy rate reductions, although Thailand was kept on the PWL [Priority Watch List] for another year,” Pol Colonel Chainarong Charoenchainao, deputy commander of the division, said yesterday.

“We have intensified our enforcement activities this year in line with the government’s policy to make 2013 the year of intellectual property protection.”

According to the division’s enforcement activity report for the first four months of this year, police raided 94 businesses across the country, up 52 per cent from the corresponding period a year ago. Unlicensed software worth an estimated Bt206 million was found on 1,904 PCs, up 64 per cent and 114.

Thai-owned companies accounted for about 75 per cent of the total raided. The others showed shareholders mainly from Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, China and Malaysia. In suppressing PC software piracy, police are zeroing in on highly suspicious industries. The other major target will be firms in the central business district of Bangkok, which are suspected of either intentionally using illegal software in their operations or being under-licensed, which means they have some software licences but not enough to cover all their PCs.

Economic Crime police are working closely with other agencies like the Information and Communications Technology Ministry and Commerce Ministry to realise the ambitious goal shared by all agencies to have Thailand removed from the Special 301 Report, which places Thailand in the PWL category. Special 301 is an annual review of IP protection and market access practices in foreign countries.

Under Thailand’s Copyright Act, infringement of a copyrighted computer program is punishable by imprisonment and/or a fine.

Those who report the use of unlicensed software by calling 02-714-1010 or by reporting it online are eligible to receive a reward of up to Bt250,000. The identity of the caller is protected. More information is available at www.stop.in.th.