The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), GMA Network, Inc (GMA), and Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) have recently co-hosted an anti-piracy symposium in Manila.
Entitled “Disrupting the Piracy Ecosystem and Protecting Legal Services,” the symposium was attended by over 80 government officials and content industry representatives. The event discussed effective strategies to disrupt and curb egregious levels of digital piracy, the efficacy of site blocking, and effective consumer messaging to make internet users more aware of the dangers of downloading egregious malware from piracy websites and services.
Undersecretary Sharon Garin of the Department of Energy, a long-time supporter of the Filipino creative industry, gave the keynote address in which she addressed the challenges faced by the film industry.
“With the rise of the internet and digital accessibility, unfortunately, there is also an increase in the piracy and illegal streaming of copyrighted content. It is high time that we seriously look into exploring the areas of improvement on the existing piracy protection in the country in order to protect the interests of the artists and copyright owners and producers as well as coming up with other strategies to promote legal, safe and reliable streaming online,” Garin stated.
Congressman Jose “Joey” Salceda, provided an address that was read out at the symposium, in which he stated: “If our creators cannot defend what they own, they will not be encouraged to create. There are signs that the sector is already stagnating, in a country whose mass market is Asia’s most prolific users of smartphones – easy avenues for spreading pirated content.”
“Site blocking is critical to intellectual property protection because the internet has accelerated the transmission of pirated content…(and)…I am pleased to report to you that House Bill No. 7600, which are amendments to the Intellectual Property Code to introduce site blocking mechanisms, is now on the House floor, after being approved by the Committee on Trade and Industry,” Salceda’s message underscored.
IPOPHL Director General Rowel Barba commented during the discussion: “To ensure that we can implement effective strategies that can disrupt and curb online piracy, IPOPHL first needs to create an environment for a trusted and robust intellectual property (IP) enforcement system with effective enforcement and dispute resolution. This is to assure our stakeholders that if they have issues concerning their IP rights, they can rely on an IP enforcement system that is prompt, responsive, efficient, and effective”.
Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President & Chief of Global Content Protection for the Motion Picture Association and Head of ACE, said:
“Online piracy is a global criminal enterprise and to combat such criminally syndicated services, our industry needs to work collaboratively and collectively as part of a global network. Streaming piracy websites and services put consumers at risk of egregious malware, undermines investment, reduces tax contributions to governments, and stifles creativity.”.
Atty. Jose Vener Ibarra, Assistant Vice President for Legal Affairs, GMA said piracy deprives content creators and content owners of the ability to maximize their economic returns and hampers their desire to create more jobs and contribute more taxes to the government.
“It also deprives the consumers of the chance to experience the full entertainment experience of online content and opens the door to malware and spyware that threatens privacy. GMA is committed to working with government and like-minded partners to form a broad alliance to fight piracy,” Ibarra concluded.