Copyright, trademark, and patent piracy is thriving in Thailand as well as other Asian countries. Before traveling to SE Asia - in America I could care less if movies, cd’s, cell phones were ripped off and sold to the public. I figured: who cares, Hollywood and consumer electronic companies make enough money anyways. It wasn’t till I saw how rampant piracy was in Thailand did I become concerned. Why should I or any American or non-American even care about piracy? Because it hurts the US economy/World economy by hurting US and non-US corporations that spend billions developing content and software. I assume that 80% of the ripped off goods are coming from China. I don’t believe the Thai people are capable of cloning such amazing duplications, besides it would just be cheaper to import it from China. The pictures below are from the MBK mall in central Bangkok. This is the heart of the city; therefore, the primary shopping destination for locals and tourists alike. Tens of millions of dollars in pirated goods are sold in this mall every year.

You can purchase unlocked Apple iPhones (which I doubt are fake), any type of software you want, fake video games, copied dvds, copied music, fake designer purses, fake designer t-shirts, fake designer suits, fake, fake fake. Brands lose valuable prestige in these countries and governments offer no support to foreign corporations looking to stop this infringement. The Thai people would be outraged if the government stepped in and shut down these illegal operations. The people would lose a huge source of national income if these operations were halted. Is the King protecting these illegal sources of money, is he making money from it himself? I doubt it, he is rich enough, but Hollywood and software corporations need to seek the King’s council to receive assistance in order to stop the rampant piracy.

Not only are the goods fake, but it’s clearly obvious that they are of lower quality. But not in every case. Some t-shirts I was examining had a cloth material that was as nice as an American Apparel t-shirt (which is regularly used for print shirts found on busted-tees, and other popular tshirts websites). I would imagine that textile manufacturing plants in China are spitting out both knock-off and designer t-shirts at the same time; why not make as much money as possible? What are some solutions to this global epidemic of piracy and brand theft?

Movies are difficult to contain as sneaking in a mini-cam and filming a full length feature film is pretty easy. A movie can be filmed at a New York premier, beamed to the right organizations in China, and immediately be distributed to over 100 million people. I was thinking that a possible way to prevent piracy would be to have US patrons in movie theatres go through metal detectors in order to prevent camcorders from entering the theatre. Additionally, movies could be formatted to where they could only be seen if special glasses were worn. Another method for movie production studios to prevent piracy (and which they are already doing) is to have global launches of major motion pictures. I was on the island of Koh Pagnon and saw an advertisement for Iron Man - wow, good job hollywood. Too bad it’ll be on the streets only a few days after release and cost less then the price of a movie ticket.

If you are a major movie production studio and interested in finding out how Banner Blindness can help reduce the spread of dvd and software piracy across the globe - please call 843-425-3566 or email Support@BannerBlindness.com It would be financially feasible to carry out an international Stop Piracy campaign through online marketing and advertising. In order to save Hollywood I think it’s important for Hollywood to educate the world about piracy and its negative effects on society.