More than 100 firms raided for using illicit software
Police raids on businesses during the first half of this year found as many as 104 firms using illegal software and identified more than 500 illegal software instances and a total infringement value of more than 120 million baht.
The Economic Crime Suppression Division (ECD) recently released a report, detailing its raids as part of an ongoing battle against the increasing use of counterfeit software.
ECD revealed that it earlier carried out a raid on an office of one local installer and distributor of infrastructure assessment instruments.
The company is a major supplier to many government agencies and a key player in the country’s power utility sector, it said in the report.
The investigation found that the company employed eight copies of unlicensed AutoCAD software to design blueprints related to their specialised measurement instruments, including equipment used for monitoring ground stability, and structural integrity.
It added that the eight counterfeit goods have a combined worth of 1.2 million baht.
ECD said: “It’s quite alarming that 80% of the companies during these raids had no licensed software, which is a criminal offence under Thailand’s software intellectual property laws. The remaining 20% were also found to be ‘under-licensed’, meaning that they were using a few licensed products alongside many illegal copies.”
In 2022, as many as 272 firms, suspected of using illegal software, were raided by ECD. Many of them were in the engineering, construction, and design industries.
Infractions in the first half of 2023 declined by 28% compared to the 144 raids in the second half of last year.
