Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai DSI; that is the Department of Special Investigations. And they are increasingly getting serious about copyright violations especially as it pertains to illegal streaming. And as we will get to in the cited article, this has been an issue over the years. That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Football and movie streaming hub in Thailand raided by Police. So again going back to this, this is kind of an issue that has popped up over the last 15 years, and especially the last 7 I have noticed really acutely, is this issue of streaming boxes, so illegal and they all are in kind of a nebulous area, so it comes down to copyright issues and basically who is paid for using what service. But these different sort of boxes that are hooked up to TVs for streaming platforms and to be able to watch movies and watch various sporting events, this has always been something of an issue out here in Thailand. DSI has always taken it seriously. It is sort of akin to the way, the FBI warnings at the beginning of old VHS tapes used to be a frequent thing back in the United States. Somewhat similar to that; it's sort of in that vein. 

That said, quoting directly: "The Department of Special Investigations (DSI) has released details of a recent raid on a large warehouse in Pak Kred, a City in Nonthaburi province which is part of the greater Bangkok metropolitan area. The 8,000 sqm premises, a massive centre of signal interception and conversion, hosted a major illegal streaming service, mostly involving international football and Hollywood movies. Police seized large numbers of signal decoding boxes and paraphernalia, satellite technology and mobile phones. Streaming without authorization is illegal in Thailand under the Copyright Act 1994 with updates in 2022. Downloading for "non-commercial purposes" can result in fines up to 200,000 Baht (US 6,000) whereas commercial copyright infringement can incur larger fines and a jail sentence of up to four years. However, there is no record in Thailand of subscribing individuals being prosecuted only the actual investors and operators." Quoting further: "Pattaya over the years has had a troubled history of legal streaming services. In 2002 a technician fell off a condominium building as he was trying to fix a satellite dish which provided pirate viewing of 400 international programs. In 2008, a British entrepreneur publicly but foolishly offering to sell decoder boxes, "so you can watch Coronation Street at the same time they watch it in Manchester" was arrested and deported." 

Yeah look, it seems like foreigners have a disproportionate sort of interaction with this particular sector and I have seen other situations where foreigners have gotten in trouble as well. Actually we have assisted them in trying to mitigate it as best we could in a legal capacity in the past. Again, Thai Authorities do take this copyright stuff seriously and when they detect it, they do enforce the law. That said, quoting further: "In 2023, a software dealer in a well-known Pattaya Mall was arrested after he dissatisfied customer complained to police that he had been sold too many boring programs about India." What is this trend with Indians going to the police when they themselves have been engaged in illegal or semi-legal, quasi-legal illicit activity. I didn't do an actual article, or I didn't do a video on this, but there was a pretty major story that came up where this group of Indians had hired some woman for entertainment purposes and decided that she wasn't up to snuff when they saw her off the street or whatever, and decided to call the police in on the matter. Hey, don't call the cops on things that you yourself are engaged in that is illegal. I think Barry Kenyon wrote this article. As Mr. Kenyon points out, quote again, and I will put this on screen, "there is no record in Thailand of subscribing individuals being prosecuted," - but the reason he is pointing that out is because they could be. So what are you doing calling in the cops when you are one of these illegal subscribers? It's not a smart idea. Quoting further: "The store owner was ordered to close for 3 months to enable a thorough review of the mischief." 

Well yeah, and this is, I didn't even think of that message coming out of this video but if you are engaged in something that may not be inside the bounds of the law, it is probably not the greatest idea to contact law enforcement, I mean think it through.