The Notice and Takedown Measure: The Comparative Study on Thailand’s Copyright Law and Singapore’s Copyright Law

Abstract

“Notice and takedown measure” is the measure that gives rise to the liability of an Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to take any reasonable action to cease the copyright infringement on the internet, once receipt of the notice of infringement sent by the copyright owners of the licensees. Otherwise ISPs might be subject to copyright litigation. Thailand has adopted this measure and provided in the provision of Section 32/3 of the Copyright Act, 2537 B.E., as an injunction measure before lawsuit. The copyright owners is required to file a court an injunction to order ISPs to cease the copyright infringement that happens on ISPs’ network. This measure, however, is new to Thailand, that is, it has been adopted and enforced in Thailand by the year 2559 B.E. by the Copyright Act (No.2) 2558 B.E.. On the contrary, Singapore has adopted this measure and provided in the provision of Copyright Act (Chapter 63) 1987 for 18 years. According to a comparative study of the implementation of Thailand’s notice and takedown measure with Singapore, it is evident that the Thai law on this measure still has many issues that need to be amended in some way in order to improve the efficiency in both piracy suppression and the protection of the rights of copyright owners and the internet users.