[george]

Bangkok Post bans Thaivisa from using its content

BANGKOK (thaivisa.com): -- The Publisher of Bangkok Post, Post Publishing PCL, has informed Thaivisa.com that they have joined the "Society for Online News Providers, (SONP)", and their policy is apparently that RSS feeds are the only way for other web sites to republish news articles.

Given their request that no content be published on ThaiVisa unless as an RSS feed, which is an automatic feed with no commentary, Bangkok Post articles can no longer be published in any ThaiVisa forums from now on since the forums are not an RSS feed.

"Thaivisa must respect Bangkok Post's new policy, but we are sort of sad to see them go away. We have a very different vision than the Bangkok Post about the future of community networking", says Barry Main, marketing director of ThaiVisa.com.

"But no worries, we have The Nation and The Phuket Gazette already on board, and we are soon hooking up with other local news sources. Our goal is to serve our members with a mixed and balanced news feed. Bangkok Post has changed this balance, at least for now", says Barry Main.

Avoid content from Bangkok Post

For legal reasons, and to protect the website and its members, Thaivisa.com must comply with this new policy and urge all members to avoid all Bangkok Post content, advising its members to find alternative content instead.

Members quoting or posting Bangkok Post content will be warned by our moderating team, and the post will be deleted without warning.

Bangkok Post's web traffic is in sharp decline according to Google Trends.

The ban on Bangkok Post articles is in effect immediately.

-- thaivisa.com 2009-10-02

[Changian]

george, on 2009-10-02 10:52:50, said:

Bangkok Post bans Thaivisa from using its content

Hardly surprising as you are in partnership with their sole competitor . . . who's in dire financial straits and in urgent need of bailing out.

Quote

Bangkok Post's web traffic is in sharp decline according to Google Trends.

And so is The Nation's according to the same source, only difference is that the BK Post gets far more hits

[khaowong1]

to me like "someone" is trying to tell Thaivisa something, like, hey, mind your own business, you have no business intefering with anything that concerns Thailand or it's policies.. keep it up George, we love you...

[lensta]

Pitty, I find the Bkk Post far better than the Nation

[raynimmo]

So surely for ThiaVisa to keep up with the rest of the world you should implement RSS within posts.

Bit of a no brainer really.

[TAWP]

An FYI, posting headlines and links is still alright under fair use clauses in most countries...

[h90]

I wounder if it is possible per law to ban using their content as a clearly shown quote in Thailand??? Any legal expert here?
On the traffic I see even more a decline of the nation, but Thaivisa is doing well

[Aqualogic]

Never mind, they will come around eventually. There are plenty of formerly powerful news organizations in the West also trying to figure out how to claw back the omnipotent control over news and information they once had. Happily, the boat has already sailed and the mass general public are all on board. Bon voyage

[Sunny Valentine]

Wonder what the legal situation is here in Thailand concerning fair use, in terms of quoting published media content?


Sunny

[andy1308]

What is the policy regarding linking to stories in The Bangkok Post? Is that prohibited too?

I am aware my views will be in the minority, but as a publisher I can partly understand where they are coming from, although I suspect that also has a lot to do with the agreement ThaiVisa has with The Nation.

The fact is that content costs money and why should a publisher allow its content to be used and, possibly, lose them income while at the same time generating revenues for others. Yes, you can argue that quoting from a story will send visitors to the website however advertising revenues from websites in Thailand are tiny and will not even come close, in most cases, to covering production costs.

My view is that publishers around the world are going to become more protective about their content. We're seeing that already, and the trend will rise over the coming months as more look to introduce some form of charging models for their online content.

[desi]

george, on 2009-10-02 10:52:50, said:

Bangkok Post bans Thaivisa from using its content

BANGKOK (thaivisa.com): -- The Publisher of Bangkok Post, Post Publishing PCL, has informed Thaivisa.com that they have joined the "Society for Online News Providers, (SONP)", and their policy is apparently that RSS feeds are the only way for other web sites to republish news articles.

Posting the whole article or too much of an article should be banned, but a quote? This makes no sense and goes against what is a given on the Internet.

[h90]

Changian, on 2009-10-02 11:02:43, said:

george, on 2009-10-02 10:52:50, said:

Bangkok Post bans Thaivisa from using its content

Hardly surprising as you are in partnership with their sole competitor . . . who's in dire financial straits and in urgent need of bailing out.

Quote

Bangkok Post's web traffic is in sharp decline according to Google Trends.

And so is The Nation's according to the same source, only difference is that the BK Post gets far more hits

But that's not the way it works on the internet.
It is far better to have your own content+link everywhere on forums, getting famous than being alone and have the The Nation everywhere.

[mnbcm]

You've got to be kidding. ThaiVisa is probably the reason they get half their traffic. Way to shoot yourself in the foot BKK Post!

This post has been edited by mnbcm: 2009-10-02 11:12

[george]

Please note that not only Thaivisa.com is affected. This applies to all websites that re-publishes Bangkok Post content.

[Plus]

In general I support that "Society for Online News Providers" - they should get their royalties for reposting their content, which is not free to produce.

That's what Bangkok Post should try to negotiate - share of the revenue for reading their articles on TV or anywhere else. But if they chose to forbid reposting and even quoting - it's their choice, I just hope they eventually realize that it's not the way to move forward. They might hurt themselves, but, on the other hand - no one here, on TV, would be happy if they go bust, or if the quality of their reporting deteriorates - that's not what we want to see in Thailand.

For now the ban is a ban. Hope they still allow links. That was not clear from George's announcement.

Are they ok with posting links to their articles?

[MaiDong]

lensta, on 2009-10-02 11:05:22, said:

Pitty, I find the Bkk Post far better than the Nation

Ditto.

It's a little bit bloody-minded, to prevent thaivisa from using BKK Post content because "the forums are not an RSS feed", who cares anyway, RSS feeds are utterly useless in most peoples lives, aren't they?

[Jonathanpattaya]

That's a pity.
It used to my newspaper of choice here in Thailand.
However, the quality has deteriorated in recent years and it is a very thin newspaper these days.

[007]

george, on 2009-10-02 10:52:50, said:

Avoid content from Bangkok Post

I've avoided buying the printed edition of BP for the past five years. Thumbs up for The Nation!

[Plus]

I, for one, hardly ever go to BP webiste - all important stories get reposted here anyway.

Thaivisa is like RSS feed itself, expect instead of headlines you get to read WHOLE news articles.

[MyphuketLife]

I really wonder if this is what they were after? They more than likely did not want Thaivisa or any website for that matter posting the entire or most of an article... I am sure it would not be an issue posting the headlines, then linking to the article like so many websites do (dig, slashdot, google,)...

I for one don't blame them, its not fair that Thaivisa posts the entire or most of the article, giving most forum visitors no need to go to BKKPOST's website. So Thaivisa gets all the ad impressions off of the backs of BKK POST's work.

Maybe you should change your policy to only allow headlines.... Then it would be fair to both parties...

This post has been edited by MyphuketLife: 2009-10-02 11:25

[madmitch]

OK, I'm going to ask the question that I hope other people are thinking:

What is an RSS feed?

[ff978472]

Intellectual property
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Intellectual property (IP) is a number of distinct types of legal monopolies over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law.[1] Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; ideas, discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.

Although many of the legal principles governing intellectual property have evolved over centuries, it was not until the 19th century that the term intellectual property began to be used, and, it is said, not until the late 20th century that it became commonplace in the United States.[2]"


http://en.wikipedia....ectual_property

[MRFortuner]

Just another way of saying "Pay money and I will let you publish" .. Its all about the money !!

Lets side track a little bit. does everyone (no only Thais) thinks that expats earns alot of money? if you think so, says "I"

[sabaijai]

Odd that one can find no mention of the "Society for Online News Providers" anywhere online, other than this thread.

[mrpositive]

ThaiVisa.com have you taken this lying down?

As a journalist of over 20 years and lecturer of Mass Comms, I am unaware of the legal strength of this decision, and it sounds as though you are too - as you have not mentioned any REAL legal argument for this decision. Have you been bullied? Acted out of fear? Simply believed that you can not properly quote with use of referents, just because they told you so?

This sounds fishy ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.

Perhaps you may wish to put this to rest by actually quoting your legal source, or making reference to the legal precedent that actually forbids you from quoting with use of referents.

There is NO legal precedent for this. They have NO legal right to prevent you from quoting them with full credit.

What's the REAL story here Thaivisa?

Don't you have a duty to report the truth, ethically and responsibly, as well as some kind of duty to your readership?

Maybe you should make a stand - with respect.