“This rampant theft of intellectual property is threatening the creation of new knowledge, new inventions, cultural enrichment, and entertainment value that society needs”
At last! As Congress resumed sessions on April 30, the Senate Committee on Trade, Commerce, and Entrepreneurship held the first public hearing regarding the proposed amendments to Republic Act 8293 or the Intellectual Property Code with site-blocking provisions.
For short the “Site Blocking” bill to take down online piracy websites.
As the lead convenor of CitizenWatch Philippines, I attended the hearing to join stakeholders from the creative industry in supporting the immediate passage of this long delayed legislation.
Committee Chair Senator Mark Villar in his opening statement emphasized the need to keep pace with dynamic changes being driven by digital technologies and highlighted concerns about copyrights violations, particularly with the proliferation of illegal streaming of online content.
Villar pointed out these violations not only pose a threat to the rightful owners and creators of intellectual property but also result in huge revenue losses for the stakeholders in the creative industry ecosystem and government.
He also pointed out the alarming prevalence of counterfeiting across various social media and e-commerce platforms.
He cited statistics saying approximately 60 percent of Filipinos engage in watching pirated content and vowed to pursue the amendment of the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines that empowers IPOPHL and ISPs aim to effectively disable access to sites involved in copyright infringement through site blocking measures.
The Coalition Against Piracy, Asia Video Industry Association represented by its General Manager, Matthew Cheetham highlighted that Filipino consumers visiting pirate streaming sites are 21.66 times more likely to be infected with malware.
Moreover, Filipino consumers visiting pirate torrent sites are 16.66 times more likely to be infected with malware.
He cited data from a 2024 YouGov survey, which revealed and increasing trend of incidence of piracy in the Philippines from 61 percent in 2022 to 70 percent in 2024.
Respondents who canceled subscriptions in the last 12 months because of their access to pirated sites were 23 percent for international streaming services, 12 percent for paid local streaming services, 13 percent for entire cable subscription, and 13 percent for specific subscription packages.
The survey also reported Philippine respondents have a negative attitude to online piracy with 50 percent saying online piracy “results in people making profits from content that I snot theirs.”
The data also revealed the respondents are cognizant that online piracy results in lost jobs in the creative industry, increased risk of malware infections on computers and devices, damage to the broadcast and creative industry, society being defrauded because of lost taxes, inferior audio and video quality, and other negative consequences.
Very interesting was the response of those surveyed in the Philippines to the question, “Should the video content you want to watch be not available via piracy services, would you pay to access content?”
75 percent said yes they would pay in some form, 39 percent said yes they would watch as supported media, and only 16 percent said no.
Atty. Rowel Barba, Director General of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, the agency that will be the lead implementer when the bill is enacted into law, expressed strong endorsement of the bills and said, in the interim, they have taken action by entering into a voluntary site blocking protocol with Globe, PLDT and Skycable.
Carlo Santos, Senior Director for Corporate Communications at Globe Telecom, expressed their readiness to block pirated sites and underscored piracy diminishes the livelihoods of individuals in the creative industry, resulting in reduced revenues.
He added increased consumption of pirated content perpetuates scams.
He emphasized the need to improve the capabilities of Internet Service Providers to implement site blocking particularly illegal gambling and online sexual abuse perpetrators.
Senator Francis Tolentino Chair of Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, in his discussions with the DICT and DOJ pointed out there are already legal precedents to site blocking and likewise supported empowering amendments to the Intellectual Property Code.
Allan Rafael, Legal Counsel at GMA Network, noted many piracy sites are located outside the Philippines. This limits the effectiveness of local enforcement efforts due to logistical challenges.
Clearly, there was unanimous support and a strong sense of urgency to pass the bill to which Sen Villar announced technical working group session will be convened to consolidate the proposed versions of the bill and finalize a committee report.
Online Piracy denies content creators their rightful earnings from the hard work, time, talent, and resources invested in producing movies, music, and all forms of art that enriches our human spirit.
This rampant theft of intellectual property is threatening the creation of new knowledge, new inventions, cultural enrichment, and entertainment value that society needs to exist and progressively evolve.
We hope Sen Villar and the whole of Senate will now expedite the enactment of the site blocking bill into law before the budget season begins.