The bad guy in this week’s story of a Korat schoolgirl entrapped into committing a crime by a copyright vigilante may have left a trail of victims.
The family of 15-year-old Orm, who said she was duped into counterfeiting cartoon characters by a buyer who then turned her in, went to the police today with at least 11 other accusers who said they too were set up in the same way.
Justice Minister Somsak Thepsutin mentioned the case this morning, saying that the purported copyright agent broke the law if he duped people in such a way of his own volition.
“Since the owner of the copyright don’t want to move forward with a legal case and it becomes clear that the copyright agent was not ordered to act like he did, the victims will be able to file a legal complaint against the man that duped her,” Somsak told reporters at the Government House.
He said he’s ordered local justice officials to assist the girl and her family.
“I’ve also ordered the department to provide assistance to others that fell victim to the same type of scam,” he said. “If any of them were detained, the department will provide bail money from the justice fund.”
After the copyright holder of the IP in question said Tuesday it had nothing to do with any of it, the alleged victims and their families filed extortion complaints with the Korat city police at about 10am.
The story that emerged this past weekend won wide attention for its seeming injustice.
Orm, 15, had been crafting krathong, aka the floats to be used in Monday’s Loy Krathong festival, for extra money to help her parents pay for her tuition. She sold them for THB17 (US$0.56). She got a big, custom order asking her to decorate them with Garfields, Minions, Angry Birds and other licensed images, and the customer was inflexible. When she and her father arrived to deliver them, the “customer” told them they had violated copyright law and had to pay a large fine.
Police believe the same person is behind all of the cases reported today.
Korat schoolgirl making 17-baht krathongs says agent duped her into violating copyright
Suranya Tigratok, 38, told police that her 18-year-old daughter was also making cartoon krathongs with Doraemon and Garfield to sell online when someone wired them THB200 and asked to meet Oct. 16 at a department store.
When the family arrived, two men claiming to be a copyright agent and lawyer seized Suranya, her husband and daughter and took them to the Korat police station. The men asked for THB150,000 (US$5,000.) and threatened harsh prosecution up to and including life sentences or death if they did not pay the “fine” as demanded.
Suranya said her family was terrified, stressed and held each other crying at the police station while negotiating. In the end, they agreed to pay THB30,000 (about US$990) which Suranya said had to be borrowed from her brother-in-law and secured by taking a costly mortgage out on their home.
After hearing about Orm’s case, they decided to take legal action in hopes the two men would be penalized and stopped.
Other accusers told very similar stories of being contacted to make copyrighted products such as stickers and cups on Facebook and then getting taken to a police station upon meeting their “customer” at a Korat mall.
They said they were asked to pay anywhere from THB30,000 to THB100,000 (US$3,300).
Korat police chief Kachen Setaputta told reporters yesterday afternoon that they have began checking records over the past 60 days to see if there could be more victims.
He said coercing someone into making counterfeit products then trying to get them arrested is illegal – which was pretty much the opposite of when he said the day before that the agent was just doing his job. Kachen could be reached by phone despite several attempts today.
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