Observations of the Extraordinary Committees Considering on Revision of the Copyright Act (No. ..) B.E. ….
On 1 February 2022, the Cabinet considered and approved the following resolutions:
- The Cabinet considered and approved observations of the Extraordinary Committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate on revision of the Copyright Act (No. ..) B.E. …. as proposed by the Secretariats of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
- The Office of the Council of State shall accept the observations of the Extraordinary Committees of the House of Representatives for consideration. If the Office of the Council of State deems it appropriate to make amendment on the ground for preparation of this revision of the Copyright Act (No. ..) B.E. …. , the Office of the Council of State shall send to the Secretariat of the Cabinet on such revised ground according to the observations of the Extraordinary Committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate for publishing in the Government’s Gazette.
- The Ministry of Commerce, as the main agency, is required to consider the observations of the Extraordinary Committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate together with the Office of the Court of Justice, Royal Thai Police, and relevant agencies and summarize the results of consideration and submit the same to the Secretariat of the Cabinet within 30 days for the Cabinet’s consideration.
The main points of these observations are as follows:
- This revision of Copyright Act (No. ..) B.E. …. is essentially an amendment to the Copyright Act B.E. 2537 regarding the duration of copyright protection in photographic works by providing protection for photographic works throughout the author’s life and for 50 years from the death of the author in order to comply with the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Copyright Treaty as well as making amendment on provisions of the technology protection measures and the limitation of liability of service providers to create a mechanism for cooperation between service providers and copyright owners to promote fair trade on the Internet. In addition, regarding the penalties, this revision of Copyright Act (No. ..) B.E. …. increases penalties for offenses in providing, producing, selling or distributing services, products or devices causing ineffectiveness on technology protection measures in order to create prevention of an infringement of copyright works more effectively.
- The Extraordinary Committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate consider that the ground for amendment of Copyright Act (No. ..) B.E. …. is too narrow since it does not cover the supervision of copyright works. The Extraordinary Committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate therefore deem it appropriate to amend the same to provide effective protection of copyright works and keep up with technological changes to be in line with consumer’s behaviors and current social situations. There are also observations about the development of copyright database system, encouraging the use of other intellectual properties in which the term of protection is going to expire for the benefit of Thailand, stipulating guidelines or practices regarding litigation of copyright infringement and considering amendment on the minimum penalty rate under the Copyright Act B.E. 2537 to make all provisions being in line to each other in the future. Last but not least, to provide effective protection of copyright works and keeping up with technological changes, the Extraordinary Committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate considers making amendment to the provisions related to the protection of performers’ rights to suit the current situation as well as encouraging copyright owners to adopt technology protection measures that do not impede the use of assistive technology for persons with disabilities to access copyright works and creating knowledge and understanding of this revision of Copyright Act (No. ..) B.E. ….