কমন্স:অঞ্চল অনুযায়ী কপিরাইট নিয়মাবলী/থাইল্যান্ড

This page provides an overview of copyright rules of Thailand relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons. Note that any work originating in Thailand must be in the public domain, or available under a free license, in both Thailand and the United States before it can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. If there is any doubt about the copyright status of a work from Thailand, refer to the relevant laws for clarification.

Thailand (formerly called Siam) remained independent throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the only country in Southeast Asia to avoid European colonization. It became a constitutional monarchy in 1932.

Thailand has been a member of the Berne Convention since ১৭ জুলাই ১৯৩১ and the World Trade Organization since ১ জানুয়ারি ১৯৯৫.

As of 2018 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed the Copyright Act B.E. 2537 (1994) as the main IP law enacted by the legislature of Thailand.^[1] WIPO holds the text of this law in their WIPO Lex database.

This act was modified by the Copyright Act (No. 2) B.E. 2558 (2015), which adds provisions related to exceptions, rights management and violations.^[3] It was further modified by the Copyright Act (No. 3) B.E. 2558 (2015) which covers recording of movies in movie theaters and exceptions for disabled persons.^[4] Wikisource holds the Thai language version of the Copyright Act, 1994 and modifying acts.

Copyright Act B.E. 2537 (1994) was further modified by Copyright Act (No. 5) B.E. 2565 (2022). This amendment is mainly aimed at "clarifying ISPs' safe harbors" as well as "adopting a notice-and-takedown system". A notable change though is the non-retroactive extension of term for photographic works.^[6]

According to the Copyright Act, BE 2537 (1994),

• Except as stated below, copyright subsists for the life of the author and for 50 years after his death.^{[2537/1994 Sec.19]}
• With a work of joint authorship, copyright subsists for the life of the joint authors and for 50 years after the death of the last surviving joint author.^{[2537/1994 Sec.19]}

• If the author or all joint authors die prior to the publication of a work, copyright subsists for 50 years from first publication of the work.^{[2537/1994 Sec.19]}
• Where the author is a legal person, copyright subsists for 50 years as from authorship; if the work is published during such period, the copyright subsists for 50 years from first publication.^{[2537/1994 Sec.19]}

• Copyright under this Act in a work which is created by a pseudonymous or anonymous author subsists for 50 years from authorship; if the work is published during such period, copyright subsists for 50 years from first publication. If the identity of the author becomes known, Section 19 applies mutatis mutandis.^{[2537/1994 Sec.20]}
• Copyright in an audiovisual work, a cinematographic work, a sound recording or a sound and video broadcasting work endures for fifty years as from the authorship, provided that if the work is published during such period, copyright endures for fifty years as from the first publication.^{[2537/1994 Sec.21 (amended by 2565/2022 Sec.6)]}

• Copyright in a work of applied art subsists for 25 years from authorship; if the work is published during such period, copyright subsists for 50 years from first publication.^{[2537/1994 Sec.22]}
• Copyright in a work created in the course of employment, instruction or control subsists for 50 years from authorship; if the work is published during such period, copyright subsists for 50 years from first publication.^{[2537/1994 Sec.23]}

• When the term of copyright protection expires in the course of a year and the expiry date is not the last calendar day of the year or the exact date of expiry is not known, copyright subsists until the last day of that calendar year.^{[2537/1994 Sec.25]}

The Copyright Act (No. 5) B.E. 2565 (2022) amended the Section 21 of the Copyright Act B.E. 2537 (1994), removing "photographic work" from the provision so that all photographs still protected by copyright are now subject to the standard 50-year term as stated by Section 19. However, Section 15 of the 2022 amendment law makes it clear that photographs that had fallen out of copyright upon the enactment of the act remain in public domain and are not covered by the extension. (The amendment act was published on the Government Gazette on 24 February 2022 and became effective 180 days after this publication.)

Section 21 before the 2022 amendment was read:

The following are not deemed copyright works:

• News of the day and facts having the character of mere information, not being works in the literary, scientific or artistic fields;^{[2537/1994 Sec.7(1)]}
• The constitution and legislation;^{[2537/1994 Sec.7(2)]}
• Regulations, bylaws, notifications, orders, explanations and official correspondence of the Ministries, Departments or any other government or local units;^{[2537/1994 Sec.7(3)]}

• Judicial decisions, orders, decisions and official reports;^{[2537/1994 Sec.7(4)]}
• Translations and collections of the materials referred to above, made by the Ministries, Departments or any other government or local units.^{[2537/1994 Sec.7(5)]}

• {{PD-Thailand}} – for works from Thailand, which have different copyright terms depending on type, usually 50 years after the creator's death or 50 years after publication.
• {{PD-TH-exempt}} – for works ineligible for copyright in Thailand, including laws and official government documents.

The Thai Copyright Act of B.E. 2537 (A.D. 1994) states that:

• A drawing, painting, construction, engraving, moulding, carving, lithographing, photographing, cinematographing, video broadcasting or any similar act of an artistic work, except an architectural work, which is openly located in a public place shall not be deemed an infringement of copyright in the artistic work.^{[2537/1994 Sec.37]}

• A drawing, painting, engraving, moulding, carving, lithographing, photographing, cinematographing or video broadcasting of an architectural work shall not be deemed an infringement of copyright in the architectural work.^{[2537/1994 Sec.38]}

For artistic works that are not situated in public spaces (not "openly located in a public place"), these can only be photographed freely if de minimis:

• A photograph or cinematograph or video broadcast of a work of which an artistic work is a component shall not be deemed an infringement of copyright in the artistic work.^{[2537/1994 Sec.39]}
• Note that artistic work as defined by Section 4 of the law does not include works of literature. On the other hand, architecture as defined in the same section includes "design of buildings or constructions, a design of interior or exterior decoration as well as a landscape design or a creation of a model of buildings or constructions." It can be interpreted that elegant bridges are works of architecture that fall under the freedom of panorama, through the element "constructions."

According to several Thai Wikimedians, the Thai text of Copyright Act B.E. 2537 (1994) gives a more comprehensive clause, containing permanence requirement. (Reference: Commons:Deletion requests/File:Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti poster for mother's milk.jpg)

According to LawPlus Ltd. (2019),^[8] "a copyright work does not need distinctiveness required for a trademark but it must be a creative expression of an original idea of its author. The required level of originality or creativity is minimal." It can be interpreted that Thailand's threshold of originality for logos is low.

The copyright of postage stamps is held by Thailand Post and lasts 50 years. Public domain for stamps published before Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "২".-১১-১.^{[2537/1994 Sec.23]}