In the modern digital age, intellectual property (IP) has been increasingly becoming a challenge to maintain copyright. Even with a legal mechanism designed to protect the entities, the original work of the creators cannot be safeguarded with their intellectual rights. Of late, Samuh’s streaming Bhutanese movies through Over The Top (OTT) platform is juggling to trace the infringer over the other social media platforms, incurring losses.
Samuh has observed that its content is mostly circulated in social media platforms like Telegram, Wechat, Facebook, TikTok and others. An official from Samuh said that mostly their contents are shared in TikTok. The official said, “It is very difficult to trace the violators with their anonymous account.”
The entity has also lodged complaint on copyright infringement to Royal Bhutan Police (RBP). However, it still remains as a challenge to correct the morality. The leakage has caused damage to the entity both economically and morally. Movies are brought from the producers and streamed through Samuh app and on TV. But the leakage has incurred heavy losses to the entity. The leakage of ‘Chogyal Norzang’ and ‘Yethro Lhamo’ had caused a loss of about Nu 6 million.
It is observed that videos are circulated by people from all walks of life, from a farmer to elite.
The Samuh is monitoring in about 42 telegram groups and other social media groups. The Samuh had to file about 20 lawsuits in the court. The litigation has helped to recover little amount through compensation, recovering about Nu 0.3-0.4 million in the process.
To overcome this challenge, the official from the Samuh said that the company needs strong IT resources. The company has also been creating awareness among the public at the same time.
It is said that individuals sharing copyrighted movies has come to the notice of RBP and it is in violation of the Copyright Act of the Kingdom of Bhutan, 2001. People are asked to respect the copyright laws and access the content legally, according to RBP.
According to the Copyright Act of the Kingdom of Bhutan, 2001, copyright works includes literary and artistic works, there are of original intellectual creations in the literary and artistic domain.
In essence, copyright provides legal protection and recognition for these diverse intellectual creations, safeguarding the rights of their authors and creators.
The Act states, “Any infringement of a right protected under this Act, if committed willfully, or by gross negligence, and for profit-making purposes, shall be punishable by imprisonment for a period of up to one year of by a fine of up to Nu 1000,000 or by both.”
Samuh is the first of its kind OTT platform providing video streaming service to Bhutanese in the country and abroad with a wide range of original, licensed and curated Bhutanese content that can be accessed anywhere, anytime and on any device connected to the internet.
Through the venture, Samuh promotes local content creation and preservation of Bhutan’s rich culture and traditions through high quality creative productions catering to Bhutanese audiences of all age groups as well as to niche international audiences with an interest in Bhutan. Samuh’s product range includes entertainment, and infotainment content spanning across different sectors such as original films, original web series, documentaries, music videos, shows and animation programs for children.
Samuh works with a wide range of talents in the Bhutanese creative industry to create films, series, documentaries, shows, music videos, animations etc.
Founded in 2020, Samuh OTT platform is owned by Samuh Mediatech, Bhutan’s first Mediatech Startup pioneering Bhutanese video streaming services on the local and international digital marketplace.
Its vision to become the number one local content producer and distributor in Bhutan through the creation and promotion of high-quality local content and development of the creative industries in the country is, however, marred and thwarted by the rapidly increasing infringements on its IP rights.
Sangay Rabten from Thimphu
