- Title
- Legal Geographies of Thailand's Technology Markets
- Creator
- Robinson, Daniel; McDuie-Ra, Duncan
- Relation
- Technology and Governance Beyond the State: The Rule of Non-Law p. 105-121
- Relation
- Routledge Studies in Conflict, Security and Technology
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781032693026-10
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2024
- Description
- Over the past two decades, there have been intermittent crackdowns in Thailand by local law enforcement targeting violations of intellectual property rights (IPRs) held by foreign companies. Crackdowns have included physical markets for technology such as Pantip Plaza and MBK Mall. However, after observing how these markets operate, there is clearly considerable social and political tolerance of copied goods. Crackdowns and tolerance operate simultaneously, emphasised at strategic intervals depending upon broader political-economic contexts, as well as spatial changes to the physical markets and malls. These inter-legalities are understood by local vendors who have their own strategies for avoiding crackdowns and arrest, which tend to come with warnings and maximum publicity. While local consumption of IPR-violating goods has waned, western tourists and other foreign merchants continue to seek out these ‘sites of transgression’ and are a lucrative market for IPR-violating goods. This suggests that the lack of social contract for IPR protections goes beyond ‘developing country’ markets and extends to networks of mobile consumers who seek out these goods in Thailand. This chapter explores the legal geographies and contours of the crackdowns on ‘piracy’ of different goods – hardware, software, and audio-visual goods in physical markets, as well as the shift in focus towards online/virtual markets.
- Subject
- Thailand; intellectual property rights (IPRs); political tolerance; physical markets; SDG 17; Sustainable Development Goal
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1518578
- Identifier
- uon:57319
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781032692999
- Language
- eng
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