Thread: Porn Makers In Thailand Freed; Leading Authority Explains Cyber Crimes Law

Porn Makers In Thailand Freed; Leading Authority Explains Cyber Crimes Law

Drew Noyes, PAPPA Co., Ltd. Law Office 01.12.2010 05:36

Internet Porn Illegal in Thailand


The internet around the world is buzzing from reports in Thailand of major pornographic movie makers getting arrested and freed in Thailand. The well-balanced Teakdoor.com and other popular sites like ThaiVisa.com and PattayaAddicts.com have had almost a million hits on recent postings about foreign pornographers in Thailand. In Pattaya, PAPPA Co., Ltd. the law firm who helped free several of those arrested has been inundated with requests for legal services. PAPPA Co., Ltd. is owned by a shareholder of the Pattaya Times, Drew Noyes. Making, posting or hosting anything Thai police can call porn or offensive to someone's reputation are crimes in Thailand under the Computer Crimes Act.

“We are hiring two more Thai lawyers to handle cases by foreigners living or working in Thailand who need protection. We are experts in the understanding of the Computer Crime Act, Foreign business act and other laws most-often leading to the arrests of foreigners. We help our clients avoid legal problems,” said Drew Noyes. [See Pattaya Lawyers or www.Naymz.com]

According to Drew Noyes, Thailand's Computer Crime Act, or CCA, broadly defines three separate types of activity as criminal acts that every foreigner with a computer, camera or video camera should know about as some provisions are easily violated because these acts are not illegal in America and most other countries.

“The first type of activity now defined as a crime in Thailand is the CCA translates to read,” it is a criminal activity for distributing technology or data that could be used to break into computer systems or could affect public security.”

“This includes Introducing data of a pornographic nature that is publicly accessible or Introducing forged or false data into a computer system that could cause damage to a third party which includes posting false statements about a person in Thailand on a blog or website that is open to the public or easily viewed online. These activities will be justly rewarded with imprisonment for up to five years or a fine of up to 100,000 Baht or both,” Drew Noyes said.

This is a broad definition and is highly interpretative as recent court rulings show. It applies to things like blogs, forums and chat rooms or publishing mobile phone photos or video clips on publicly accessible websites like Facebook, Hi5, Flickr, Thaivisa.com and YouTube, Noyes said.

“Section 26 of the Computer Crime Act makes it mandatory for all internet service providers (ISPs) must keep records of their users' email, chat, internet usage and personal identification for a minimum of 90 days,” Noyes explained.

Under Section 3 of the CCA, a 'service provider' is anyone or juristic person (company) who provides internet access or computer communications like messaging, dating sites, blogs, forums or any websites to other people, Noyes noted.

“And as of August 24, 2008, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Ministry ruled websites and blogs are liable and should police the content of sites and any postings and remove illegal content of text, graphics, pictures and videos.

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