U.S. Threat Fails to Slow Thailand Piracy : Copyrights: Investigations into illegal copying of films and record albums could result in trade sanctions against Bangkok.

Silver Bell, its three floors of videotapes making it the largest purveyor of illegally copied movies here, has closed its doors, at least temporarily.

“The police came and said to shut down for a week,” said a Silver Bell employee, poking his head out from behind a metal grille that carried a small notice in English: “Close.”

At Villa Supermarket, which caters mainly to affluent expatriates, the video section had disappeared. “No tapes, no tapes,” said the former manager of the video department, when asked what happened to his business.

These were among the initial ripples felt in Bangkok after the decision a week ago by the U.S. government to put Thailand on a list of “priority foreign countries” accused of acute problems enforcing copyright laws.

China and India were also on the list, and both have expressed displeasure with the U.S. action.

In Thailand, however, apart from a few token gestures by the police, the colossal pirating of films and record albums appeared to be proceeding at an undiminished pace.

On the main boulevard of Silom Road, hot new films such as David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart” were selling for a mere $4 a tape. Squeezed in between the baked banana sellers and street stalls offering chicken satay on a skewer, a man in a plum Maui shirt was selling the latest Kylie Minogue and Paula Abdul audiotapes for 25 baht, the equivalent of $1 each.

Across the road, S. S. Soft System was selling the most popular U.S. computer programs for an even greater discount. For example, the latest version of Lotus 1-2-3, a popular spreadsheet program, sells for the equivalent of $50, less than one-tenth of the retail price in the United States.

Most small video shops managed to open for business as usual. These shops have developed elaborate sources for current U.S. films, from copying tapes sent to movie theater owners by the Hollywood studios to making hand-held videos in Los Angeles movie theaters.

Under the action taken April 26, the U.S. government has six months to conduct an investigation, and, if the problem is not resolved, trade sanctions such as tariffs on Thai exports to the United States can be considered.

But because two investigations of Thai intellectual property violations are under way, no new U.S. investigation is planned, according to Carla Anderson Hills, the U.S. trade representative. Hills said that in Thailand “ineffective enforcement has led to significant losses for the U.S. motion picture, sound recording and computer software industries.”

Thai Commerce Minister Amaret Sila-on said the government would never be forced to take an action that damages the country’s long-term interests. “This could damage our relations with the United States,” Amaret said. “We have already decided what we could give and what we could not.”

Jack Valenti, chairman of the Motion Picture Export Assn. of America, has called Thailand “the worst offender of intellectual property rights in Asia.”

In addition to the lack of enforcement of copyright laws, the United States has complained about the lack of patent protection for prescription drugs, which are copied by local producers and sold for a fraction of their cost in the United States.

Thai doctors and drug manufacturers have become agitated at the possibility that the Thai government will accede to the U.S. request, warning that pharmaceutical prices could rise sharply and a number of local drug producers could be threatened with closure.

“Whoever invents a drug must donate it as a charitable gift to the public and should not monopolize it under patent,” said Vitoon Oengpraphan of the Thai Medical Council.

American producers reject the Thai arguments, saying that patent protection will only affect new drugs coming onto the market.