C. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A COPYRIGHT COLLECTING SOCIETY
It is further proposed that the establishment of a Copyright Collecting Society (CCS) in
the Thai education sector is necessary for ensuring that copyright owners will receive a better
economic return from their investment through an effective system of royalty collection. This
should be undertaken, while at the same time making it more convenient for the users to obtain
licences for the use of educational materials, and thus reduce the number of copyright
infringements which occur as a result of the difficulties in obtaining these licences. Such an
establishment must be carried out alongside the introduction of the appropriate legal controls to
protect the users from any abuse of power by the CCS. The Thai IP Courts, in many decisions
on copyright exceptions, have recognized that the establishment of a CCS and its licensing
scheme systems in the Thai education sector is necessary. Importantly, they have followed the
UK and US approaches by holding that the educational exceptions should not apply where there
is a licensing scheme provided by the CCS in place for users. This means that the use of
educational materials will be governed by the copyright exceptions and the licensing scheme
provided by the CCS. This idea is inspired by the practice in the UK education sector, where
the use of educational material is governed by the fair dealing exceptions and the blanket
licensing scheme from the CCS.51
Nevertheless, the establishment of the CCS in the Thai education sector without any
legal control may result in additional problems, since the CCS could potentially abuse its power
in an anti-competitive way, as well as setting unfair royalty rates for the users. For this reason,
it is necessary to have a dedicated governmental body and regulations to control the operation of
the CCS in the Thai education sector. In addition, in order to allow the CCS to function
effectively, its establishment must be undertaken hand in hand with the improvement of the
educational exceptions to support the operation of the CCS. These educational exceptions must
function as an instrument to encourage the copyright owner to participate in the prospective
CCS and its licensing scheme system, similar to the United Kingdom. For example, the
exception for reprographic copying by educational establishments in Section 36 of the UK