Pol Maj Gen Visut Vanichbutr, commander of economic and cyber department shows some of 50,000 pirated VCDs and DVDs, worth about Bt5 million, confiscated during a raid at a building on Soi Silom 1 on Monday.

Photo by Jessada Chuntraruk

The Nation

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Whenever I go to the local street market there are always stalls selling pirated CD's, VCD's and DVD's in the open

When travelling around, its the same. What about in your neighbourhood / area of Thailand?

What are your thoughts on this issue. Should the Government do another "Crack Down"

admin Wrote:----------------------------------------

Whenever I go to the local street market there are always stalls selling pirated Cd's, VCD's and DVD's in the open

When traveling around, its the same. What about in your neighbourhood / area of Thailand?

What are your thoughts on this issue. Should the Government do another "Crack Down"

Pirated vcd's are everywhere in Thailand but they are not the only ones to blame. Some blame has to go to the movie and music companies for being greedy in the first place and asking a huge price for an original. They sell relatively cheap in a pirated form and make them affordable for people with small incomes. It's not just in Thailand it's here in Canada but on a different scale. Someone rents a movie, normally a DVD here, and burns a copy then everyone they knows watches it and makes copies or you just download it off limewire or a similar site. If the originals were less costly there would not be such a demand for the knockoffs. If you notice there are not that many pirated Thai CD's/VCV's as they are less expensive in the first place.

While I understand and support intellectual property rights I also think that supporting those rights for artists long dead and film studios that no longer exist id just dumb. Maybe they should have a limit where anything older than "X" years is no longer covered by copyright and intellectual property laws.

Another crackdown. Well it's all PR hype because taking them off the street for a couple of days won't solve the problem unless they remove the fake Louis Vuitton (sp?) bags in the stall on the left and the $10 Rollex stall on the left. It's not just VCD's that get copied. The authorities are just making a show of the situation to appease the Americans who are complaining, tomorrow the children of the guys that have done the bust will probably be slipping a pirated CD into their player or watching a pirated movie, that's the way I see it.

CD-, VCD- and DVD-originals are generally too costly. Why producers do not lower the retail prices in order to create a greater turn-over and do more business ? The instant profit might
become lower but long time customer relations will certainly be improved.

Bought a dozen the other day. They won't play on my machine. So beware!