Currently, there are plenty of internet users causing copyright infringement works substantially. The current Copyright Act does not cover the advance of today’s technology. Therefore, the Amendment to Copyright Act (No. 5) B.E. 2565 (“Act”) was proposed by the Ministry of Commerce and will be officially enforced on 23 August 2022. The reasons for enactment of this Act are for complying with the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Copyright Treaty (WIPO Copyright Treaty) in which Thailand became a contracting party, strengthen efficiency in protecting copyright works while changing in technology as well as revising the provisions on protection of technological measures. This Act also improves the provisions on limitation of liability of the service providers for effective law enforcement along with creating cooperation between service providers and copyright owners in solving piracy problems on the internet.

This Act has added definition of the term “Service Provider” which has a broader meaning than the current Copyright Act and also added the definition of the term “Service User”. The Act has also amended the definition of “Technology Protection Measure” to include the performer’s rights and recording of performance mediums. Moreover, this Act has intended to improve the provisions on limitation of liability for several types of service providers which are service providers for mediums for transmitting computer data or allowing the communication to be communicated by other means through the computer system, temporary computer storage service providers, computer depository service providers, and service providers for the computer data search. It has also amended the way to conduct taking down and notice against the infringement works. It is hoped that this Act will help in balancing among the rights of copyright holders, liabilities of service providers and using of copyright works under fair use principal.