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Thailand Sues YouTube
eldavojohn writes "Thailand is hitting YouTube with charges of lese majeste (up to 15 years in prison) regarding the recent videos on YouTube showing the king next to feet, something extremely offensive in Thailand. 'Since the first clip, more new videos mocking the king have appeared on YouTube, including pictures of the monarch that had been digitally altered to make him resemble a monkey. Thailand's 79-year-old king, almost universally adored by Thais, is the world's longest-reigning monarch, and one of the few who is still protected by tough laws that prohibit any insult against the royal family.'"
...doesn't sound very bright. Or, more likely, they're perfectly bright and it's me that's stupid. Given that they have no grounds on which to sue anyone and that they're no doubt perfectly aware of that, what's the plan?
I would assume that it's a move to appease an outraged populace, except that the populace don't appear to be too outraged and the government's going to look rather foolish and impotent when they fail to accomplish anything.
Why do I get the image of a server sitting in the pokey in Thailand?
No seriously...
Do people think Google officials should be sent to Thailand on extradition the way Australia sent alleged copyright criminals to the United States? Is this the same situation, or is it fundamentally different?
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Well, if Australians can be charged with breaking the DMCA then Americans should be able to be charged with breaking lese majeste.
> his loving subjects might reconsider selling their daughters into a life of misery.
That happens for economic reasons, though with the consent of Thai law enforcement. A significant percentage of the country's GDP comes from sex tourism and such. Large differences in economic status, absolute poverty...
Women and children are sold as slaves in the US, too, or from the US; it's less common to be trafficked from here to another country, because usually the flow of slaves for labor or forced prostitution runs from poorer countries to richer, while the money goes the other way. (Thailand, Russia and former Societ Bloc States, Nepal, Brazil, Nigeria... there are a lot of source countries for slaves.) Destination countries include the US, Canada, India, the UK, Italy, Germany, the UAE, Israel, South Korea, etc...
*ADVICE*
Next time you want real Thai food, go to the corner emigre's restaurant instead, yes I know it's so much fun to fill up the party plane and jet on over, but seriously, you'll get to enjoy your freedom...
*FUN FACT*
Did you know that the word Thai means "Freedom"?
God: When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.
I was stationed in Thailand from August 1973 to August 1974 when I was in the Air Force. The Thais are the friendliest people you would ever hope to meet.
.45 caliber pistol at me because I didn't want to drink any Thai whiskey, and was told that this was a grave insult. I apologized and drank the whiskey, and we all had a great time.
Mars couldn't have been a stranger place than Thailand. I can't stress enough the difference between there and the west. Everything is different; even the color of the dirt is different. All of their customs are different. Flipping the bird means nothing, but don't point your foot at anyone!
Just don't piss them off. I once had a fellow point a
The king's picture is on their money. Once I dropped a dollar, an American dollar, fortunately, and they were a bit shaken when I stepped on it to keep it from blowing away. If it had been a bhat (a currency in both coin and paper that was worth a nickle at the time) I'd have gotten a severe beating and maybe been killed.
I once saw a kickboxing match between Thail boxers and Chinese Gung-Fu fighters. The Gung-Fu guys wound up going to the hospital.
They're short, but don't fuck with the Thais. They're likely to extradite all you gonzos now that precidence is set and put your young asses in a Thai jail.
A friend of mine wound up in a Thai jail. If you don't have friends or family bring you food, you starve! Boy, are you kids in deep doodoo!
-mcgrew
when you attempt to censor something, anything, you just give whatever it is free advertising
i'm glad the thais love their king. but if they are secure in their love for their king, the existence of these videos won't mean anything to them. by freaking out at the existence of these videos, they only demonstrate insecurity on their part, and they cheapen and devalue their love for their king
same when deeply religious people freak out at some sort of sacriledge. with dignity and ignoring the sacriledge, they show the depth of their love, by turning into ravenous dogs, they only denigrate their faith, such as with devout muslims and pictures of muhammad, or devout catholics and depicitions of the virgin mary
if your faith or love is storng, idiots and childish pranks don't move you. if it does move you, it only shows your love or faith is cheap and shallow and insecure
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Is he almost universally adored by all Thais, or just the ones who aren't in jail?
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
The king himself actually cares very little for this kind of attention and has suggested publically that the government uses this law to silence dissenters more than anything else. He usually pardons them in his yearly pardon-athon.
"Anybody who tells me I can't use a program because it's not open source, go suck on rms. I'm not interested." (LT 2004)
I lived in Thailand for 2 years, knew many Thais, had a Thai gf etc, and I have to say that from what I could see they really do love him - or act very convincingly that they do. One of the greatest faux pas I made there was making a slightly joking comment about him .. the look of horror on their faces was memorable, and I sure didn't do that again.
You can say that they only "love" him because they've been constantly indoctrinated from childhood to do so, and you'd probably be right, but the result as I saw it is pretty much the same. Even in a bar full of drunk partygoers at 3 in the morning on Sukhumvit Rd (a high-foreigner area) - a good way to make everyone within earshot hate you, and possibly physically attack you, is to badmouth the king in any way, shape or form.
Good? Bad? I don't know, but from my experience, whether it's programmed or not, yup - they pretty much universally adore him.
Something I forgot to mention: You'll notice that most of these instances involve foreigners. Like that Swiss man? He lived here 10 years, got pissed because he couldn't buy beer on the King's birthday, and you would think knowing better, decided to deface the King's picture on HIS BIRTHDAY. And yet the King pardoned him (although he's now a Personna non Grata).
Americans (and Brits, I would presume) might not readily understand this, given that their political space is mostly a circus, but what the Thai king gets is not just love, but respect. He kinda embodies their culture and their identity; they even use a different dialect when addressing the royal family. Heck, the grandfather of the current king, Rama V, is actually venerated as a demi-god; he regularly makes an appearance in most Thai families' prayer rooms, next to Buddha and other gods. This, in turn, is a throwback to the old tradition of treating the king as a devaraja.
Those laws, then, exist not to enforce a single person's ego, but as a way to warn us barangs to not overstep on to the things that the Thais respect.
The king has no policy oversight on anything in Thailand, and hasn't had for decades now. Quite a red-herring to conflate other issues with that of free-speech.
(Not to say I actually support the laws - censorship in any form is bad - but it's important to understand the historical and cultural context within which they exist.)
More than mere navel gazing.
I spent two months in Thailand last year (left just before the coup, by a happy coincidence...) and I can confirm that yes, the local Thais (or at least all of the ones I talked to) greatly approved of their King. I remember thinking at the time that I wished Australia had a head of state we could be so proud of.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
In my country, The king never said anythings about this story but All Thai people cannot accept in what is going on. It is like someone said badly to your daddy, your family, or your love.
In here, The king is our father too and we very care about what is going on.
We all love our king very much. He contribute all his life to his people.
Please don't comments before you come to Thailand. You will know when you come to this smile city.