Creative industry seeks Senate action on bills that stop online content piracy
Creative industry stakeholders seek the Senate action on two proposed legislations, which seek to block online content piracy, now pending before the trade and industry committee.
“Currently no hearing was conducted on those Senate bills after they were filed several months ago, and even a similar bill in the House was already approved on final reading almost a year ago,” said the stakeholders in the creative Industry.
Industry players who are calling for the prompt passage of two legislative measures that would revisit the 26-year-old Intellectual Property Code (IPC) were referring to Sen. Bong Revilla’s Senate Bill 2385 and Sen. Jinggoy Estrada’s Senate Bill 2150.
Both legislations seek to empower the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines into dismantling access to online sites which infringes copyrights and initiate site blocking, as well.
Revilla’s amendment proposal to the IPC was filed on August 01, 2023, while that of Estrada was on May 9, 2023.
A counterpart bill in the House, which was authored by Albay Rep. Joey Salceda and was integrated into House Bill 7600, has already passed the third and final reading in May last year, and is now pending legislative action by Sen. Mark Villar’s committe on trade and industry.
The two bills seek to revise the 1997 IPC.
Famed celebrities have recently called on the Senate panel to speed up its legislative process on the two legislation to enable online site blocking.
Those who are advocating for support to the swift revision of the Code and empowering the IPO to combat the prevalence of online piracy include actors Ryan Eigenmann, Cai Cortez, and Kiray Celis; presenter and host Pia Gianio-Mago; and director-writer Fifth Solomon, among others.
The celebrities are sounding off their call for collective efforts in curving online piracy and ensure that Filipino talents are being acknowledged, protected and rewarded.
“The delay to facilitate the swift passage of Senate Bills 2150 and 2385 hinders the role of the creative industry in helping the country’s economic growth under the Creative Industry Act which was passed in 2023,” said the celebrities.
Earlier, actor John Arcilla and actress Shaina Magdayao have also issued similar statement of support for the speedy amendments of the Code to enable online site blocking of pirated contents.
If passed by Congress, Senate Bills 2150 and 2385 will update and strengthen the old IPC and enhanced the enforcement capabilities of the IPO against online piracy.
The amended Code will also remove provisions which have limited its control over electronic and online contents within the definition of pirated goods.
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