The hard line on software piracy

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The hard line on software piracy

How police fight a crime rooted in 'all sectors' of Thai society

Published: 21/03/2011 at 02:50 AM
Newspaper section: News

Bad habits are hard to break, and the use of pirated software in Thailand is firmly entrenched and may take many years to overcome.

However, inroads have been made by the Thai software police.

The Washington-based Business Software Association once reported that 90% of the PCs in Thailand had illegal software installed. Last year, this had dropped to 75% as the Royal Thai Police's Economic and Cyber Crime Division (ECD) continued its fight against counterfeit and unlicensed programs.

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About the author

: Writer: Wassayos Ngamkham; Position: Reporter

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johninbkk
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Discussion 20 : 21/03/2011 at 07:58 PM20
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coolit D16 - Developing a quality brandname, something that customers know and trust, is very expensive. Producing a poor quality fake and passing it as the real thing hurts the brandname. And it doesn't stop there, fake medicines are also passed as the real thing in the land of smiles.
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rpt777
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Discussion 19 : 21/03/2011 at 04:59 PM19
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Re: D17
Intellect seems a concept that has escaped your small minded thinking. If there were no profit in inventing anything they would soon be nothing invented. Research and development costs a fortune and the pittance of a salary that you speak of is paid to many many many people who actually might go years with out a positive contribution to the company that employs them. They are free men and can go out and invent and develop on their own if they have the knowledge and the expertise. They choose to work for the big company because they want the job security.
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rpt777
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Discussion 18 : 21/03/2011 at 04:48 PM18
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The same thing is true in most ASIAN nations. They are all thives and think nothing of stealing someone else's intellectual property. Western countries can no longer compete in labor intensive industries and even in the area's intellectual property where they can compete it is taken away.
I think the answer will be that any country that refuses to enforce the law will be labeled as a cheat, and will be retaliated against with 100% penalties on their exports to the western countries which would effectively stop them.
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drake
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Discussion 17 : 21/03/2011 at 04:43 PM17
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Intellectual Property is a white man illusion of ownership.
Most of the time they were TAKEN from the real creator without due compensation beyond the pittance salary they were paid - if that.

Police (law enforcement) is a tool for people in power to control the general population in accordance with the agreements that the rich and powerful have amongst themselves.
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coolit
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Discussion 16 : 21/03/2011 at 01:40 PM16
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There are 10's of thousands of movies that would never be available in Thailand or anywhere else in Asia and other parts of the world, they would go unseen and vanish in oblivion never to seen seen of or heard for ever again ever. So who cares ?, same goes for the bags and other, 99% of the entire Human Race will never ever be able to afford a LV original and even if someone of the 99% had the money they would not spend it in the LV shop or for any other bag and waste the precious money, at worst the fakes are good advertising and in truth nothing is lost.
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samesame
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Discussion 15 : 21/03/2011 at 01:32 PM15
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"Thai police become tools for the United States and benefits are only yielded by the copyright holders," what a stupid comment the police are tools for the rule of law what do you want a kick back or somthing like Juthamas Siriwan got and seems to have got away with it "another case of Thailand brushing it under the carpet".
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isanfarang
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Discussion 14 : 21/03/2011 at 10:39 AM14
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One might think ,from the comments made by the police, that perhaps this type of activity might be part of the long tentacles of "law enforcement" into yet another area of "organized crime",which according the the U.N. is what the Thai police are described as right here...http://www.upiasia.com/Human_Rights/2008/03/27/thai_police_are_best_organized_criminals/2369/.

No chance of stopping it if it is part of your criminal enterprise,just like why they never seem to arrest any of the obvious Eastern European women who are active sex workers in Pattaya,Phuket and Bangkok.It's not hard to imagine Russian mafia/Thai police links there.It's not as if the blonde hair,fair complexion and micro mini skirts are that obvious..ha,ha.
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banmebkk
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Discussion 13 : 21/03/2011 at 10:28 AM13
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The easiest way to counter this problem is to sell software for really cheap in Thailand. Most companies are not willing to pay 4500+ baht for each license of MS Office. If MS can price it between 1000-2000 baht, I am sure most people will switch to real versions. I studied College in the US, students were able to purchase MS Office for $40 in school. If you were to purchase the same thing from Microsoft it would cost $149. Although it sounds like a big discount, it seems like Microsoft will profit more and have less people using counterfeits.
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phetpeter
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Discussion 12 : 21/03/2011 at 10:18 AM12
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The simple truth is if these companies who produce the software in the first place were fair with the price they sell then people would be able to afford them, is there a good reson to charge 5,000 baht for basic windows when nearly all computers have it? of course not! its greed. Charge 1000 baht and everybody would buy it. and MS would still be rich.
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rfukata
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Discussion 11 : 21/03/2011 at 09:36 AM11
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Pathetic attitude. Just proves on how low class it is over here. I suppose the cops attitude is, theres nothing in for me, i.e. bribes.
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