Vendors lash out with sticks, bottles, stones
By: POST REPORTERS
Published: 8/05/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News
The government will press ahead with its crackdown on pirated goods and intellectual property violations despite the outcry of vendors who attacked its officials in Patpong.
Patpong traders and law enforcement officers
engage in a free-for-all during a raid on pirated
goods in Patpong on Wednesday night.
Photo courtesy of THAI RATH
About 200 vendors on Wednesday night attacked 50 Commerce Ministry officials who raided sellers’ booths and arrested them for selling pirated goods.
Vendors attacked the officials with wooden sticks, glass bottles and stones. Some reports said guns were fired to scare off the officials.
About 10 officials were injured in the melee, and one is in a serious condition.
Officials arrested some vendors, and loaded four vans with confiscated pirated goods, mostly counterfeit copies of bags and clothes.
They headed for Bang Rak police station.
The vendors blocked the road and stormed one van after another three vans broke through the crowd.
Vendors in Patpong Road complained that the counter-piracy officials were too harsh.
They filed charges with Bang Rak police against the officials for physical assault and robbery.
The government, however, says its anti-piracy drive will continue, and Patpong vendors can expect raids every two days.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the vendors attacked the officials after they tried to seize their pirated goods.
Mr Abhisit said he would ask Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot, who oversees the government’s anti-piracy campaign, how to avoid future clashes.
“The government must continue to carry out its policies to suppress pirated goods and to confront unlawful influence,” he said.
'Countering goods piracy is a policy of this government."
However, the government would also take action against any official who was found to have used excessive force against the vendors.
Mr Alongkorn said his ministry would crack down on pirated goods and intellectual property violations every two days. Patpong Road would be raided again in the next two days. “The government cannot allow their unlawful businesses to continue,” he said.
Vendors said officials seized all products from their outlets, although some of their products were not pirated.
The officials did not discriminate between pirated goods and goods which they sold legally, which angered the vendors, they said.
Officials including police who fired their weapons in the air during the scuffle were over-reacting, they said.
Mr Alongkorn said vendors who attacked the officials enjoyed support from some influential figures, some of whom were connected to high-ranking law enforcement officers.
The deputy minister said he had ordered an inquiry into the clash, but insisted the officials did not start the violence.
Trading in pirated goods cost the country more than 200 billion baht every year, he said. Most pirated products were imported. The influx of pirated goods undermined the competitiveness of Thai products.
Mr Alongkorn said he would also order a study of state authorities in areas where large volumes of pirated goods were available, as this suggested they were not doing their job properly, or had fallen prey to dark influence.
The Commerce Ministry declared it would crack down on intellectual property piracy after the United States Trade Representative (USTR) put Thailand on its special watch list of nations that fail to crack down on copyright and patent violations at the end of April.
The USTR also listed China, Russia, Algeria, Argentina, Canada, Chile, India, Indonesia, Israel, Pakistan and Venezuela as the world’s worst offenders. Under US policies, listed countries could be subject to penalties, trade barriers and embargoes.
In Bangkok, the USTR identified five popular areas as the world’s most “notorious markets” for pirated goods: Pantip Plaza, MBK shopping centre, Klong Thom, Sukhumvit Road and Patpong Road.
Executives and singers from RS Promotion Plc, a large entertainment firm, led by director Sutthisak Prasatkharukarn, yesterday called on Prime Minister Abhisit at parliament to thank the government for taking action against pirated products.
Bron: Bangkok Post / www.bangkokpost.com