Thailand has experienced a massive resurgence of movie piracy over the past few months, with an industry insider estimating the problem has resulted in total commercial losses of US$238 million (Bt8.48 billion) in movie-related businesses.

A source at the Motion Picture Association (MPA), an organisation formed by major Hollywood film producers, said police had arrested almost 2,000 people involved in movie-piracy cases this year, an increase on the 1,100 to 1,180 cases last year.

Almost 80 per cent of the cases involve retailers of copied movie products, while the rest are wholesalers and warehouses, as well as manufacturers.

MPA represents Hollywood film studios such as Buena Vista, Fox, Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, United Artists Pictures and New Line Cinema, and was formed to deal with the piracy problem.

The source said: "We have found increasing examples of movie piracy in many locations throughout Bangkok such as Sukhumvit, Patpong, Klong Thom, Sapan Lhek and Baan Mor, and even major shopping complexes such as Pantip Plaza, Future Park, Seacon Square and Mah Boonkrong."

Next year, MPA will concentrate on suppressing the masterminds because the arrests so far mainly involve retailers. Moreover, it will ask the government to include copyright violation as part of the money-laundering law to tighten penalties. MPA will also take serious action on electronic crime as a number of violators copy movies through the Internet and cable television.

A massive number of pirated videocassettes once created trade friction between Thailand and the United States. The problem has subsided over the past few years. However, the introduction of DVDs and VCDs has encouraged piracy again because the technology makes it much easier for copycats to illegally pump out fake products.

The source said that piracy had intensified in Thailand since the ousting of the Thaksin government. Since then, the government had not put much effort into piracy suppression because the police had other issues related to national security to deal with.

"After disappearing for two years, we have found strong movie piracy in Mah Boon Krong this year. More than 30 retailers of pirated movies have become established on the second and fourth floors of the shopping mall," said the source.

He said that MPA also knew of over 100 retail outlets for fake movies in Pantip Plaza. Those retailers ordered products from only four or five major wholesalers.

The source said most of the original recordings of the Hollywood blockbusters had been made illegally in theatres in the US. The copied software had been transferred via the Internet to independent makers of VCD and DVD products in Malaysia and China. The products had then been smuggled to Thailand, mainly from those two countries, for local reproduction.

He said local producers had created their own networks for writing or burning copied VCD and DVD products by spreading their small factories out to many locations.

In 2005, activities relating to such copying worldwide totalled $512 billion, higher than the narcotics trade of $322 billion, according to estimates by MPA.

The source added that people turned to churning out pirated movie DVDs because the business can generate profits of 1,500 per cent, compared to only 1,050 per cent in the heroin trade.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation