Bangkok, 19 February 2007 – Thailand’s Supreme Court has sentenced a provincial cable operator in Loei province and its director to a US$2,778 fine and six-month’s imprisonment on parole, respectively, on a charge of infringing the broadcasting copyright of CASBAA-member UBC (“TrueVisions”).
In February 2002, Muang Loei Cable Network Co (MLC) was alleged to have pirated a UBC program and redistributing it to its subscribers without authorisation from UBC.
The defendants were prosecuted at the Thai Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court (“IP Court”).
The police team which made a raid on the MLC offices and head-end in Loei province was led by Lt. Pol. Gen. Noppadol Somboonsub, Deputy Commander General of the Royal Thai Police under a search warrant from the IP Court.
The defendants denied the charge, claiming that UBC had no copyright control over the content broadcast by it.
In June 2005, the IP Court rendered a judgment confirming that UBC had broadcasting copyright on the program it broadcast through authorization from the rights owner The first defendant was convicted with a US$2,778 fine and the second defendant was given six months imprisonment on parole of one year. The defendants filed an appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Thai Supreme Court upheld that UBC had the broadcasting copyright on the program broadcast by it even though UBC was not the creator nor a copyright owner of such contents.
With its judgment the Supreme Court set a precedent confirming that the authorized broadcaster has copyright on its broadcast program licensed by the rights owner.
Under the Thailand Copyright Act 1994 copyright infringement is both a civil and a criminal offense. Offenders who committed the copyright infringement for commercial purpose are liable to imprisonment of six months to four years or a fine of Bt 100,000 to 800,000, or both.
“CASBAA welcomes these signs of a greater understanding of pay-TV copyright issues,” said Simon Twiston Davies, CEO of CASBAA. “But we need to see more deterrent fines and enforced prison sentences if we are have real change within the Thai pay-TV market.”
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ABOUT CASBAA – www.casbaa.com
CASBAA is an industry-based advocacy groupdedicated to the promotion of multi-channel TV via cable, satellite, broadband and wireless video networks across the Asia-Pacific. The Association represents some 120 Asia-based corporations, which in turn serve more than three billion people. Members include AETN International (History Channel), Asia Broadcast Networks, Asia Broadcast Satellite, AsiaSat, Astro, Australia Network, Bloomberg Television, Chunghwa Telecom, Comverse, Discovery Networks Asia, EMC, Granada International / ITV Worldwide, HBO Asia, IBM, Intelsat, Macquarie, MTV Networks Asia Pacific, Nokia, now TV, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sony Pictures Television International, STAR Group, Sun Microsystems, TrueVisions, Turner International Asia Pacific, Walt Disney Television International, Zonemedia, Al Jazeera, Anytime, Asian Food Channel, BBC World, Celestial Movies, ESPN STAR Sports, Eurosport, Hallmark Channel, Hong Kong Cable, Irdeto, Lovells, Measat, National Geographic, Paul Weiss, Sky News Australia, Synovate and TimeWarner.
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