3 Private Servers forced to closed under Action Against Private Servers in Thailand

Asiasoft Nabs Illegal Online Game Service Providers and Seizes Servers

- The operation was an unprecedented success and marks the first salvo of ‘Action against Private Servers’ initiative in the gaming community -




From Asiasoft Nabs Illegal Game Service Providers

2nd February 2009, Bangkok, Thailand - In cooperation with Thailand’s authorities; The Economic and Cyber Crime Division, High Tech Crime Center, Asiasoft Corporation Public Company Limited, (SET: AS) is pleased to announce the arrest of three notorious and unlicensed online game service providers and their servers on January 24th, 2009. The successful operation marks the start of the ‘Action Against Private Servers’ initiative by Asiasoft to educate the gaming community.


The trio jointly declared the successful shut down of those illegally operating servers that violated Thailand’s Intellectual Property Laws, dishonestly duplicating and making a profit from the company’s multi-million baht gaming merchandises, namely Ragnarok Online, Yulgang and Dekaron. In a swift and timely operation, the officials raided three different locations in Bangkok all at the same time. A total of five suspects were arrested and eight servers were seized as evidence.


“Violating the Intellectual Property Law has a serious impact on Thailand’s economy. Not only does it affect the gaming industry, it dampens the country’s economic growth as tremendous resources are lost, discouraging foreign countries to invest in Thailand,” warned Mr. Alongkorn, Deputy Minister of Commerce. “This is an urgent issue that needs to be taken care of. It is our duty to help companies to eliminate the illegal business means, thereby showing our sincere support to the business sectors.”


The pirate server gangs who had illegally duplicated the popular online games have been charged under the “piracy for profit” law and found guilty of running unlicensed online game servers (Ragnarok Online, Yulgang and Dekaron online games are licensed merchandises of Asiasoft Corporation Public Company Limited, the owner of the license to operate in Thailand) by renting their 3 servers from a local Internet Data Center (IDC). This violation is a criminal conviction in Thailand and represents millions of baht loss to Asiasoft.

 Spoiler

Thai Deputy Minister of Commerce speaking to media






Illegal Servers 1






Illegal Servers 2






Thai Deputy Minister of Commerce with Asiasoft MD





Thai News Producer filming






Asiasoft and Gravity representatives

A press conference was held over the weekend with Mr. Alongkorn Ponlaboot, Deputy Minister of Commerce, Pol.Lt.Gen. Boonruang Ponpanich, Assistant Commissioner General, Royal Thai Police Bureau together with other senior police officers and Mrs. Pajchima Tanasanti Executive Vice President, Department of Intellectual Property, Thailand. Mr. Lertchai Kanpai, Managing Director of Asiasoft Cooperation Public Company Limited and Mr. Jeong Jae-hak from GRAVITY Co., Ltd (Ragnarok Online game developer from Korea) discussed the gathering of information about illegal operations of online game service providers and vowed that they would stay committed to protecting the intellectual property rights of innovators in Thailand.


“It is important for the gaming community to know about the infringement of IP copyrights issues and its high risks of running it. Not only the game play experience will not be as realistic as the official servers, the game support will not be present to make a wonderful experience,” said Mr. Lertchai Kanpai, Managing Director of Asiasoft Cooperation Public Company Limited. “With our ‘Action Against Private Servers’ initiative, we hope the gaming community will engage with us and continue to play in the official servers. We will work closely with the authorities to monitor the situation and game developers to bring richer, more quality content to enhance the total game play experience.”


This is the first piracy case to be successfully pursued by Asiasoft and the relevant authorities. With this arrest, strong endorsements and support from both private and government agencies to combat piracy were received. All parties committed to regulate the online gaming industry and continue to improve the co-operation between private and government sectors to stamp out the operations of pirate servers .




Source: http://www.playpark.net/pressroom/view/a...s_servers/

maybe next private server targeted will be MapleStory in SG/MY/Thailand?
This is in Thailand not SG/MY