Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing illegal streaming in Thailand. This seems to have come to the attention of Thai police and not just Thai Police. It's important to point out we are talking about the Department of Special Investigation here. That is a pretty serious institution if you will, within the Police Force, and it is not something that one should overlook or shrug off. When they target something, when they look at an issue that needs to be scrutinized, you need to be aware that law enforcement is serious on that topic, and I think that is borne out in this article here.

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Subscribers to Illegal streaming services warned after raids. Quoting directly: “Thailand's Department of Special Investigation Police have warned streaming users in Thailand." To be clear, now we are talking about users okay. I did a video recently which didn't gain a lot of traction; not a lot of people seemed particularly interested in the topic, but DSi is targeting those who are purveying pirated IP, pirated intellectual property, pirated material in terms of streaming and they were primarily, and seemed to have been in the past, primarily concentrating on those who put this stuff out and the investors behind them, not so much the end consumer. That maybe shifting a little bit. Quoting further: "DSI Police have warned streaming users in Thailand that they risk punishment if downloading pirated movies or sports events, including premium football. This follows a series of raids in Nonthaburi and Bangkok across six major locations which have closed the notorious INWIPTV network. Eleven staff have been arrested according to a police source. Although imprisonment is a possibility for investors and workers in the illegal streaming business, ordinary viewers in Thailand paying a subscription as low as US$10 monthly can be fined up to US$5,000. So far DSI has taken a lenient view of punters not actually making a profit, but spokesmen now say that the whole issue has become too serious to ignore." Quoting further: "The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, the world's biggest anti-piracy coalition, said Thai Police had promised to look into pubs illegally showing International football matches and condominiums allowing the screening of pirated movies through illegal boxes or satellite dishes. The spokesperson added that as soon as one company was closed down, another would spring up as a replacement." 

Yeah, and that's not exactly unheard of in criminal enterprises. I mean you get rid of one iteration, and it sort of reorganizes and comes back. The other thing to think of it as there is an element of the free market out there where if people can get what they want to consume at a cheaper price, they are always going to try to do that. That being said, Intellectual Property protection is something that I have kind of a mixed mind on. I understand that it is necessary to have these IP protections in order to effectively encourage creativity, because if people can't have some prospect of being able to make money off of their art, off of their productive output in the creative arts if you will, then it discourages them from being creative. Now there is a balancing act there between honestly, basic notions of free expression, which again you are not entitled to steal somebody else's property, so exactly where that interacts is kind of always difficult. But another element of this is there is a certain point where I really feel like nitpicking and nanny-mindering folks that are doing things that are in the, basically the consumption into the pipeline of something like this, where the "bad act" if you will is pretty innocuous. Consuming pirated material, which by the way, if you are sitting in a pub and watching football on TV and you are just a customer, how on earth are you supposed to know that your eyeballs aren't supposed to be looking at that production, they are not supposed to be looking at that content, at that material because it hasn't paid its proper IP VIG,  or whatever you want to call it. It is difficult to suss out. 

I think it would be best concentrating on those that try to profit from this enterprise, rather than worrying greatly about consumers, because I think going down the line of trying to, I don't know bag and tag everybody that has ever seen a football event that didn't go through the proper IP channels, one, I think law enforcement has better things to do with its time and money. Two, again is this some great evil that we need to worry about? No. I think law enforcement can worry about other things. That said, I do who understands the notion of going after those who would profit illegally off of other people's creative output; I get that side of it. That said, getting into the nanny-mindering of the end consumer of this type of content, to my mind that seems pretty excessive and again it seems like we could be allocating time and resources especially the Thai Police who have limited time and resources to other more important things in my opinion.

That being said, it is interesting the way that this is evolving and we will certainly be keeping people updated on this channel as this situation evolves and as further information comes out regarding it, so stay tuned