Anti-piracy bill passage to benefit Phl creative economy

Media and telecommunications companies are urging the Senate to pass the anti-online piracy legislation, saying the absence of such a law hinders the growth of the country's creative economy.

Viva Communications chairperson and CEO Vicente “Vic” del Rosario Jr. stated that without online piracy, the Philippines could have a creative economy comparable to South Korea. He made the remarks during the signing of an E-Commerce Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) by Viva Holdings, Inc. and its 37 subsidiaries.

The agreement aims to strengthen the protection of their content and retail products on digital platforms against online piracy and counterfeiting.

Del Rosario emphasized that piracy reduces the budget available for content creation.

"If not for piracy, we could have a bigger budget to create more content for our audience to enjoy, but we’re getting less than what we hope to get. If not for piracy, we could be a formidable creative economy on par with South Korea," said Del Rosario.

Meantime, Globe Telecommunications Inc. has also been vocal in advocating for stronger measures against piracy, particularly the passage of legislation to institutionalize site blocking.

Yoly Crisanto, Globe’s Chief Sustainability and Corporate Communications Officer, previously said, "This worrying trend highlights the urgency of strengthening enforcement against piracy, which can be done through amending the Intellectual Property Code to enable site blocking. We believe this will go a long way in curbing content piracy, which will in turn support the creative industry and protect our customers from the dangers posed by pirated content."

Currently, two bills, Senate Bills 2150 and 2385, are pending in the Senate. Both seek to amend the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines to address online piracy.

Earlier, a separate group also expressed concern over the Senate's delayed action on the anti-online piracy bill, highlighting the ongoing damage to the creative industries due to the lack of legal protection for intellectual property. They stressed that piracy remains widespread.