Thailand seeks to bolster anti-piracy efforts

2018/10/18

Thailand has reportedly proposed a new copyright law that would accelerate the speed at which infringing content is removed from online. According to online news outlet Bloomberg, the new law would require internet service providers (ISPs) to set policies that would block users who repeatedly share infringing material. In order to achieve this, the ISPs would have to enforce standard technical measures, said Bloomberg. Currently, copyright owners must ask a Thai court to order illegally-downloaded files to be deleted under Thailand’s Copyright Act. If the order is granted, the copyright owner then has to send a takedown notice to an ISP within a fixed timeframe. Bloomberg said that Thailand’s Commerce Ministry expects to vote on the law this month, after which it will proceed to the National Legislative Assembly. If the law is approved, the King of Thailand, Maha Vajiralongkorn, would then need to sign it. According to Bloomberg, these measures are part of Thailand’s attempt to join the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Copyright Treaty. Current laws in Thailand do not meet the requirements of the treaty, such as applying technical measures to detect illegal content online.

Source: WIPR