BOOK CLOSES ON THAI PIRACY

Nearly 15 years after the European Commission received a complaint from IFPI that the European recording industry was suffering from the rampant infringement of its members' IP rights in Thailand, the Commission has finally closed its files on Thai infringement. This is not to say that piracy has stopped: what has happened is that the Commission has recognised that there are better ways of dealing with it than by conducting formal examination procedures and then by bringing its finding to the attention of the Thai authorities. As the notice in the Official Journal says:

"Despite these initiatives, piracy of sound recordings (international repertoire) remains a serious problem in Thailand, and substantial numbers of pirated sound recordings continue to be exported to the European Union. These continuing problems can, however, better be addressed in other contexts than an investigation under Regulation 3286/94".

Have the Thais been employing counterfeit steamrollers in their campaign against infringing products?

The IPKat thinks this goes to show that, where the infringement of private rights such as IP rights is concerned, the forces of diplomacy will almost always act against the swift and efficacious resolution of infringement problems. Merpel adds:

"But it's good to get officialdom, such as governments and the Commission, involved. for one thing, it makes them feel they're doing something useful; for another, even if Thai piracy continues, at least our own side get to learn about the harmful effects of infringement of which they might otherwise have remained ignorant".

Thailand's most hated film here