Fake Sound Police at Lennie's last Night!

[Sunny Valentine]

Last night, at around 12:30 pm, four Thai men entered Lennie's and demanded to see our music license.

Two of these men were very quiet, one was very aggressive and rude, and the fourth man claimed to be a representative of the Thai Copyright Royalty agency, Phonoritghts.

 

The rude man showed us a Police sign, but refused to let my manager inspect it or write down his personal data.

 

I had the feeling I had seen the faces before on an article posted on Pattayacitynews.

 

Here's the link to this article with Fotos.

 

I questioned their right to demand a music license, claiming I am a music publisher myself (which is true in a way) and the Austrian Music Publishing Guild has informed me there are no contracts with an organization in Thailand. I demanded to see credentials of the man claiming to be from Phonorights which he could not produce. SO I told him we will call the real Police if they don't leave, which they eventually did.

 

Later I checked the Pattayanews Article, and can now confirm that these guys were the same as in the article. We had a few talks with our local Police guys, as well as Howard from Pattayacitynews.

 

This morning I contacted phonoright, and the lady I spoke with confirmed after seeing the pictures that these guys have nothing to do with them.

 

I got the license application emailed and have already sent it back to them, expecting confirmation and payment of the valid license in the forthcoming week. The yearly fee for Lennie's will be around 6000 Bt.

 

Any bar owner who wants a contact to this company, please contact me. Looks like it is advisable to speak to them directly, rather than rely on some of the bogus Pattaya "Agents" that claim to be their representative.

 

 

PS: It turned out later today that Austria is really one of the very few Countries not covered by this license.

 

 

 

Sunny

[sexy beast]

Weldone Manfred for being on the ball.

[Braveheart]

Excellent work Manfred. It's nice to see that information passed along from others has been of benefit to you. It is only a matter of time now I hope until these scammers are shut down.

[anto]

Well it looks like they done you a favor,by making you apply for a license .Now when the real police come around you will have one .Or maybe i miss understood you original post .

Edited March 16, 2007 by anto

[Sunny Valentine]

Well it looks like they done you a favor,by making you apply for a license .Now when the real police come around you will have one .

 

We have no trouble with the real police at all. And this license thing has been followed up by me since a month or two, it was just absolutly unclear until now who the competent partner for applying for a license is. I bet many of the bars who have paid for a music license have worthless piece of paper instead .

 

Sunny

[David Brent]

i think this goes to show that you must always keep a phone camera within reach. its only by exposing these hustlers that will keep things reasonable. after all we are pretty much frontier town now in pta. anything goes

 

fully expect to see muggings, robbery violence shooting etc to increase in these militarily emasculated times

[balls]

good for you manfred for having the wit and bollocks to stand up to them I saw a similar artice on PCN, the guys in this case were shaking down a mobile phone shop, but these guys had GUNS and they were brandisihing them freely.

 

It is getting like wild west times out there, but no more so than manchester or liverpool here, same shit , same scams, any business nowdays is a target for the have-nots.

 

chock dee

[Pattaya City News]

Well done Manfred for standing your ground!!

[ahillbilly]

Well done Manfred for standing your ground!!

 

I totally agree!

[ATMboy]

good job standing up for your rights !