The Federation of National Film Association of Thailand submitted a letter of petition to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission to take action against websites which provide free or pre-paid movies online to members of the public.
The letter was handed over to NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tanthasit by executive members of the federation led by Mr Vicha Poonworalak, movie directors and entertainers.
Mr Vicha said the online movie shows, either free of charge or paid, without the permission of the producers are deemed to be copyright infringements.
An executive member of the federation, Mr Pornchai Wongsi-udomporn, recalled that infringement of movie copyrights and shown online through various websites, applications and Facebook had been going on for decades, causing enormous damage estimated at about 10 billion baht.
He said complaints had been lodged with the police and other authorities concerned, but little was done to resolve the problem.
Producer Mr Anont Mingkwanta alias as “Poj Anont” disclosed that making a movie costs an estimated 20-30 million baht and, after the movie was shown in cinemas for a couple of day, the movie was copied and posted on the internet and shown online free of charge or with token fees.
He noted that most of these websites also made available adult movies or X-rated movies which can be accessible to underaged youths.
In response to the federation’s call, Takorn said the NBTC would summon for talk with about 36 websites which provide online films and 18 internet service providers for discussions on how to deal with the alleged copyright infringement problem.
