After a 15-year-old girl was arrested and fined in an undercover sting for making floats, or krathongs, featuring cartoon characters, the license holder today denied being part of the operation.
TAC Consumer, a food and beverage company that holds licenses for a number of popular characters including Rilakkuma, said in a statement it was unaware of the sting operation that led to the arrest of a schoolgirl only identify as Orm.
“TAC Consumer PCL would like to clarify that we did not order anyone to arrest violators of the copyright law, as many media publications reported,” it said. “Right now, the company is consulting our legal department and have assigned a lawyer to get to the bottom of the situation in order to move forward with the case fairly for all parties involved.”
Update: Copyright predator targeted other crafty Korat girls: minister
The case came to light this past weekend when Orm’s story and photos of her colorful cartoon krathongs, made for this coming Monday’s Loy Krathong festival, started making the rounds on social media.
Orm, 15, said she was determined to make some extra income to pay for her school tuition because she just started her first year at a vocational school. She wanted to lighten the financial burden on her low-income parents, she said.
She got the idea to make eco-friendlier bread krathongs for the festival and advertised her little side-hustle on Facebook. It turned out that she received many orders, mostly for traditional flower patterns.
That was until Friday, when someone ordered 136 krathongs via Facebook with specific cartoon characters including Garfields, Angry Birds and Minions. While she said she didn’t normally do such jobs, she decided to accept the order. The krathongs were reportedly sold for THB17 each (US$0.56).
“I worked from 8am until 1am just to make the orders. I made them myself with only a little bit of help from my mom because I’m the only one who knows the process. .. I asked the customer if they could do other characters, but they were very specific about their order,” the girl told reporters.
But, when Orm and her father, Tawatchai Polhang, went to deliver 30 of them to the customer at a department store in Korat, they found her client was a copyright agent waiting for them.
Orm was immediately taken to the police where officials demanded she pay THB50,000 (US$1,660) in fees. Fortunately, her grandfather, a former policeman, managed to negotiate the fine down to THB5,000 (US$166.)
Copyright enforcement setups have been a source of complaints over the years, usually involving police and private-sector compliance firms going into bars or restaurants and demanding exorbitant sums for any music being played.
Tawatchai believes the sting was immoral, even if his daughter is technically guilty because, not only was it entrapment, but not what she ever intended to do. He doesn’t believe such stings should be conducted on children who don’t know better.
หากพบว่า คนแจ้งจับรู้เห็นกับตัวแทนลิขสิทธิ์ น้องจะไม่มีความผิด แต่ตัวแทนลิขสิทธิ์จะมีความผิดข้อหากรรโชกทรัพย์ โทษจำคุกไม่เกิน 5 ปี ปรับ 1 แสนบาท#กระทงการ์ตูน #ไทยรัฐ #Thairath pic.twitter.com/S6GZOeKp96
— Thairath_News (@Thairath_News) November 5, 2019
“I just want to say that I try to make my own money for tuition because I don’t want to ask my parents. Why do you have to do this to me? What did I do wrong? [The police] never told me, all they did was tell me off. All I want is a little extra income. I’m still young,” Orm told reporters through tears.
Multiple media reports that the sting operation was confirmed by Korat police chief Kachen Setaputta, who could not be reached despite several attempts Tuesday afternoon. Kachen reportedly said that the agent was just doing their job and relayed a warning to students to think twice before acting or risk getting in trouble due to their ignorance.
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