BLATANT THEFT
I wrote recently about the problems of copyright theft in Thailand. Here's a perfect example. One of Thailand's 'leading' business newspapers has lifted (translated) an entire story from the online version of one of the world's leading weekly business magazines. They've even used the same direct quotes that appeared in the original. And in this case they've also said where the story comes from in some misguided belief that makes it okay to steal stories. This is also the second time they've done this inside two months.
Why am I bothered? My company licences that weekly business magazine brand in Thailand, and as such we are the only ones with permission to use their content in Thai. Although we do not own the copyright ourselves it's in our interests to inform our partners so they can take necessary action. We have invested a lot in acquiring the license so we must do all we can to protect that investment.
5 comments:
I am dealing with copyrights every day and are always amazed how easy and common it is in Thailand to copy other peoples copyrights.
I guess it's impossible for me to find a similar job in Thailand ;-)
Bas - Unless you know Thai it's very difficult to know whether something is stolen or not, and even then it's not always easy. We only keep an eye on stories that we know have been written in English by our license partner in the US, so it's almost impossible for one person to monitor everything written by the Thai media and see if it's already been written elsewhere.
Guess I have to continue to study on my Thai to make the job hunt a bit easier ;-)
Andrew, that was a good starting point, but what are your legal options to stop Thai language newspapers from taking copy from English language publications? What are the rules in Thailand? I'd like to know, and I assume many others would also appreciate the same information.
Thailand, IMO, is the land of stealing copyrights and something needs to be done, and in your position, you seem to be one to approach that task. Let me know what you find out. This is an important issue, and something rarely mentioned in the international press.
Carl
Carl,
I think the main problem is that authors do not know it happens because they don't understand Thai. It's not as easy to spot. We published a licensed Thai language edition of a leading weekly business magazine. We do not own the copyright ourselves but, as I explained in the blog, it's in our interest to inform the copyright owners in New York what is happening here. We've spotted three occasions in the past nine months where stories (and images in one case) have been translated and printed in Thai publications. And you can be certain it is happening a lot more with other English publications.
Copyright is copyright and I believe court action is the only remedy. Having said that I know that Thai courts to tend to take the side of Thai people who, in at least one case I have heard about, were commended for allowing Thai people access to material that they would not otherwise have been able to understand.
I will post about the ways in which action can be taken in the next few days.
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