Thailand police organized an undercover sting that resulted in the arrest of a 15-year-old girl who was making Loy Krathong floats incorporating the copyrighted images of popular cartoon characters.
The girl, who lives in the northeast of Thailand, was creating Krathong floats with many patterns and designs that she was then selling on Facebook to raise money for her schooling.
She claims that she had never made any floats with cartoon characters on them until a specific Facebook customer insisted.
When the girl delivered the float to the customer, she found out it was an undercover operation by the copyright police.
“I made Krathong baskets from 8 am until 1:30 am to fill the order, only to be arrested,” the girl from Nakhon Ratchasima said.
The copyright officer ordered 136 Krathong floats from the girl but she could only finish 30.
The girl made her Krathong baskets by hand using bread and said her only goal was to help her family who struggles financially.
She charged only 17 baht for each float.
The copyright officer arrested her and initially asked for a 50,000 baht fine, which was then negotiated down to 5,000 baht by the girl’s grandfather who used to be a police officer.
Nakhon Ratchasima police confirmed that the incident took place.
The Help Crime Victim Club said that they plan to help the girl who–in their words–was extorted and entrapped into violating copyright, which they say is against Thailand copyright laws.
Loy Krathong is a Siamese festival celebrated on November 11.
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