A Comparison of Thai and United States’ Copyright Laws as they Apply to Scholarly Video Resources
Abstract
Over the last several decades, US-Thai diplomatic discussions have often involved the discussion of intellectual property laws (Uphoff 1991; MacLeod 1992; Arnold 2006). The two countries have different approaches to protecting intellectual property but are signatories to common treaties, e.g., TRIPS, The Berne Convention, etc. In the past decade both Thailand and the United States have had updates to their intellectual property laws (Thailand: Copyright Act B.E. 2537 (1994), Copyright Act (No. 2) B.E. 2558 (2015), Copyright Act (No.5) B.E. 2565 (2022); United States: Copyright Act of 1976, Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998, The Music Modernization Act 2018). In this presentation, through a historically informed approach, I present a comparison on two aspects of Thai and US Copyright Law. I discuss variations of copyright term length and national legal differences related to moral rights. I take these two issues and then discuss the application of creative-commons licenses (Lessig 2004) and the impact that creative-commons licenses can have for video materials which are produced as part of scholar-led or community-led minority language preservation efforts. Video material in scholar-led or community-led minority language preservation efforts are often desired to be maximally open and share-able. In open contexts, if the materials meet creativity thresholds, copyright law will apply and creative commons licenses may provide creators and archivists a way to meet the creator’s and archival goals. Creative commons licenses can not apply in contexts where copyright does not also apply.
Bibliography
- Arnold (2006)
- Arnold, C. (2006). Protecting Intellectual Property in the Developing World: Next Stop—Thailand. Duke Law & Technology Review, 5(1). Article 7.
- Lessig (2004)
- Lessig, L. (2004). The Creative Commons*. Montana Law Review, 65(1). 1–14. Retrieved from https://scholarship.law.umt.edu/mlr/vol65/iss1/1
- MacLeod (1992)
- MacLeod, D. (1992). U.S. Trade Pressure and the Developing Intellectual Property Law of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. University of British Columbia Law Review, 26(2). 343–374. Retrieved from https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/ubclr26&id=353&div=&collection=
- Uphoff (1991)
- Uphoff, E. (1991). Intellectual property and U.S. relations with Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University.
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Hugh Paterson III
Collaborative Scholar
I specialize in bespoke research at the intersection of Linguistics, Law, Languages, and Technology; specifically utility and life-cycle management for information products in these spaces.