Copy, Paste, Violate Copyright – Tourism Authority of Thailand Strikes Again

Today, 25 March 2011, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) made a post on their Amazing Thailand Facebook page about Koh Samui with a link to Tourism Thailand web site.

Here is the post from the Tourism Authority of Thailand Amazing Thailand Facebook Page:

Amazing Thailand
Welcome To Samui Island (????) It is Thailand’s third largest island, with natural resources, white sandy beaches, coral reefs and coconut trees. http://bit.ly/gfidfc

Tourism Authority of Thailand Facebook Post

Here is the where they copied the post from – Wikipedia:

It is Thailand’s third largest island, with an area of 228.7 km² and a population of over 50,000 (2008). It is rich with natural resources, white sandy beaches, coral reefs and coconut trees.

Wikipedia Ko Samui

It is legal to copy from the Wikipedias, however, attribution MUST be given under the Creative Commons Terms of Use for re-users by providing a link to the content. This was not done.  The Tourism Authority of Thailand made it look like they were the writers of the content when all they did was lift it from a Wiki.  Without proper attribution, this is a copyright violation.

Wikipedia Terms of Use and Re-use

Along with stating that the information was taken from the Wikipedia and providing a link to the source, it is required that the type of license also be provided.  This can either be a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike, or a General Public License.  One or both MUST be specifically mentioned.  Again, the Tourism Authority of Thailand has chosen to disregard the law and violate Wikipedia’s copyright.

creative commons

This just goes to show once again, that about the only thing that the folks at the Tourism Authority of Thailand know how to do on a computer is copy and paste someone else’s material.

Tags: copy copyright ko samui paste TAT tourism authority of thailand violation wikipedia