A local consumer advocacy group took the Senate to task for failing to act with urgency on site blocking bills that seek to clamp down on online piracy and cybercrime.
“Where do our senators’ sympathies really lie – with the creative industry workers being deprived of just returns for their hard work, unsuspecting online users falling victim to fraud and identity theft, or to the shady individuals and groups that benefit from these activities?” said Patrick Climaco, convenor of Konsyumer at Mamamayan (KM).
“The bills have languished in the Senate Committee on Trade, Commerce and Entrepreneurship even after their obvious advantages have been laid out by all the industry stakeholders being victimized by intellectual property violations.”
“Is there a rational reason for the delay?” Climaco said.
Two senators, both former movie actors supporting the clamor of the Philippine entertainment industry, have filed these measures.
Senator Jinggoy Estrada filed Senate Bill 2150 to restrict access to websites promoting copyright violations, proposing fines of up to P1 million for such infractions.
Meanwhile, Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. filed Senate Bill No. 2385 expanding the authority and responsibilities of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), particularly in initiating site-blocking measures.
The House of Representatives has already passed House Bill No. 7600 authored by Rep. Joey Salceda in July 2023, which proposed updates to the 26-year-old Intellectual Property Code, including provisions for website blocking.
Research on “Consumer Risks from Piracy Sites in the Philippines” by Professor Paul A. Watters, a professor of Criminology and Security Studies at Macquarie University and Professor of Cybersecurity at La Trobe University, shows Filipino consumers are nearly 30 times more likely to encounter malware on piracy sites.
“Let us disabuse ourselves of the thought that consuming pirated content gives us a cheaper alternative to the real thing,” Climaco said.
“The costs are actually so much greater than we imagine.”
“This is a cybersecurity threat at the core level, because it strikes people personally, even intimately,” he added.