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"Businesses will have to ensure that they are compliant with the Thai Copyright Act," Colonel Sarayuth Pooltanya, deputy commander of the Economic and Cyber Crime Division (ECD), said yesterday.

"On October 26 we will begin major efforts aimed at raiding companies based on our information about software piracy taking place within these companies," he said.

The ECD drew up the list of 1,000 suspected offenders based on tips, some anonymous, typically from sources within the targeted companies.

Leads are also being shared by the Business Software Alliance, which runs a toll-free hotline and website for informants to report on the use of pirated and unlicensed software in businesses.

Other software developers also alert police. Once police receive evidence of software copyright infringement from software developers, they review the evidence and verify the information.

Next, police obtain search warrants and then conduct raids of company premises. In recent months, the ECD has stepped up enforcement of software intellectual property rights.

August marked one of the ECD's most successful months, with 15 substantial raids netting Bt54.5 million worth of infringed software.

The raided companies came from a wide variety of industries, including manufacturing, real estate, automobile, shipping, design and engineering.

Besides numerous locally-owned enterprises, companies with foreign ownership were also involved.

"The only thing that companies we investigate and raid have in common is that they are violating the Thai Copyright Act with regard to software piracy," Sarayuth said.

The ECD is not projecting the results from the probe of 1,000 suspect firms nor the impending raids. But it does say that its intention is to reduce the software piracy rate on an annual basis so as to bring Thailand's piracy rate of 76 per cent into line with international averages.

In Asia-Pacific the software piracy rate is 61 per cent. In Thailand, company directors are liable for up to four years in jail and fines up to Bt800,000 for violation of the Thai Copyright Act.