Department of Intellectual Property warns against pirate products online

BANGKOK, May 9 (TNA) -- The Department of Intellectual Property warns e-commerce customers to check online products carefully because they may be buying pirate and substandard ones. Thosapone Dansuputra, Director-General of the department, said customers should buy products only from reliable websites and sources and avoid pirate and substandard products which could be harmful to their health and safety. He also said that customers might risk losing important data or damaging their computers if they downloaded or streamed pirate media that might include malwares and computer viruses. Besides, Mr Thosapone advised e-commerce operators not to sell pirate products because they would be liable to higher punishments than brick and mortar stores. Operators should carefully check the products they planned to sell, he said. His department has asked internet service providers and webmasters to provide intellectual property owners with channels to file complaints on pirate products and to remove information about pirate products from their networks. (TNA)