Saturday, April 26, 2008 RP industries lose P3.5 billion to piracy
THE country's recording and entertainment software industries have lost US$69.4 million or P3.465 billion to intellectual property piracy, according to Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez.
Citing year 2000 figures, Rodriguez said the government suffered tax loss of P170 million due to piracy in software industry alone. The software industry, Rodriguez said, lost about US$27.1 million or P1.4 billion in revenues as a result of 61 percent piracy rate.
The sound recording industry experienced a piracy rate of 33 percent and lost US$1.3 million or P65 million while the entertainment software industry lost US$41 million or about P2 billion due to piracy rate of 98 percent, Rodriguez said.
Alarmed by the increasing rate of intellectual property thievery, Rodriguez filed a measure seeking to modify Republic Act (RA) 8293 known as the Intellectual Property Code to minimize if not totally eradicate piracy, especially through the Internet.
In pushing for the approval of the bill, Rodriguez reminded authorities that the country is a party to the Berne Convention, which protects the property rights of artists and writers.
"Likewise, as member of the WTO (World Trade Organization), the Philippines is also enjoined to recognize and protect intellectual creation distributed in various modes and channels such as the Internet," Rodriguez said.
The congressman said: "with the onset of this digital revolution man has been equipped with a new empowerment, vastly expanded his knowledge, broke barriers amongst countries and easily accessed information in a borderless universe."
"Nevertheless, the Internet has become an information highway that has also bred a new and awesome breed of pirates who utilize this technology in stealing intellectual property and infringing intellectual property rights in cyber space," Rodriguez said.
He noted how property rights violation swell by the day with "pirated software in the form of illegal CDs (compact discs), DVDs (digital video discs) and similar optic products being sold openly and brazenly at extremely low prices."
"Given this situation, it is high time to retool the prevailing law by sharpening its focus, enlarging its protective coverage and reinforcing its potency to provide meaningful relief to victims of intellectual thievery," Rodriguez said.
"Thus, this measure proposes to amend the Intellectual Property Code to further protect and secure the exclusive rights of scientists, inventors, artists and other gifted citizens to their intellectual property and creation and likewise license their own works online," he added. (Press release)
