What is a streaming Music License, Just been raided.
Well it had to happen sometime, I was raided by the powers that be!
As all bar owners should know by now raids have been going on around Pattaya looking for copy CD's being played in bars. Now before anyone says "Good, get rid of piracy" If they wanted to stop piracy they could easily arrest all the people selling discs on beach road, the markets, the shops and for that matter everywhere else. But no, this is just another excuse to easily steal money.
Wanting to stay within the law I made sure that there were no copied CD's in the bar and told the girls that they were to make sure none ever came in. I also switched to streaming the music from our PC, all of the music was bought officially from mp3sugar.
Well this Thai lady and man came into the bar and started talking to my manager. I asked what was going on and she said looking for CD's. Feeling pretty smug I said fine no problem. Next minute the lady was behind the bar going though all the bits and pieces. I said she was not allowed behind there and a policeman appeared and said she was! Next minute a copy MP3 CD appeared in her hand. I was shocked! And strangely enough it wasn't planted either. Turned out no matter how many times you order your staff not to allow them in the bar, they bring them to play when you are not there. They just love their Thai Music. (Note: I've also been told it's illegal for a farang bar to play Thai Music!).
This disc gave them the excuse they were looking for. The girl then started operating the PC and doing a search for all media. Up popped a picture of me with one of our girls topless. It was one of the pics I uploaded to this forum and forgot to delete after. Well she blew it up to full screen and the policeman was taking photographs of the screen. Next minute she was disconnecting everything and trying to confiscate all my PC equipment, touch screen monitor, and everything connected to the PC.
I started screaming that they need a warrant to remove anything from the bar, Don't know if that's true but it sounded good and gave me a few minutes grace to call my Thai wife and local friendly policeman.
Many times the girls tried to take the computer and each time I pulled it out of her arms. She looked at me as if I was crazy! They worst part was as well as the computer they also wanted to take me to the police station!
For readers not based in Thailand I should mention that this is two well known scams. Fistly the computer. Once they take it you have to buy it back from them. Normally about 60,000 baht. Secondly was taking me to the police station. This is much more serious. They threaten you with prison or deportation unless you pay about a million baht. Don't pay and you are off to the monkey house.
Like an idiot I stood my ground, eventually the police asked what type of Visa I had. They were told it was a married man's visa. They accepted this and said OK, they would not take me BUT they would still take the computer AND MY MANAGER (Na). I knew if she was taken it would cost me a fortune to get her back. If I didn't pay she would be in prison.
With tears in her eyes she told me it was OK, she would go with them. She didn't mind going to prison, better her than me because if I went I could not pay the money and would be deported. Also it was better for a Thai to be in Prison than Farang. My respect for her leapt up a thousand percent.
Just then my wife arrived with our Policeman. A discussion took place and I was told they would not take the computer but they were still taking my Manager. More discussions and angry policeman (Not ours) later they did not take either the computer or our manager BUT my wife had to visit the ATM a couple of times and a large amount of baht was handed over. (Of course we never got a receipt for this!) Happy with the proceeds from their robbery the official representatives of the Thai Government disappeared into the night.
Now of course all MP3s and photo's have been removed from the computer. But they left with a warning that it is illegal to play music at all without a music license or a special license to stream music. Problem is I have never heard of these licenses. Could any bar owner who knows about them please tell me where to get one from!
Ah Well TIT!, I was expecting to be scammed sometime, the bar next door was done a few days ago. The worst thing is, even though all this happened, the girls will still bring their MP3 discs into the bar! At the meeting today they will all be told if they do they will be instantly sacked, but I know they will just ignore me, I'm just a stupid farang.
