Piracy is one of the
most pervasive crimes in our country, and fruits of such bootlegging are
in most, if not all, households.
I refer, of course, to film piracy. According to some studies, in the
year 2006 alone, there was an alarming 74 percent piracy rate, with as
much as 134.3 million dollars worth of losses to piracy. The numbers are
alarming, if not staggering.
This is a problem government is addressing, in earnest.
The Optical Media Board (formerly the Videogram Regulatory Board), an
agency in the Office of the President created under Republic Act 9239 or
the Optical Media Act of 2003, is the lead agency for running after
these pirates.
The Board is primarily tasked to regulate the mastering, manufacturing,
replicating, selling, distributing, importing and exporting all optical
and magnetic media, its manufacturing equipment and its manufacturing
materials. A yeoman’s job, clearing the aegean stable.
As part of its functions, and aside from filing criminal cases and
confiscating pirated materials, the OMB conducts information campaigns
to acquaint the public with its mandate and, hopefully win them to their
side by not buying pirated materials.
With that in mind, I joined the OMB when it launched its 5-day Education
and Public Awareness Exhibit wherein several schools were invited to
observe and acquire knowledge of the OMB and other IPR-related subject
matters.
With Mr. Pacifico Avenido Jr., the Deputy Director of the Intellectual
Property Philippines; Ms. Maria Consoliza Laguardia, Chairperson of the
Movie Television Review and Classification Board; Mr. Roesholm Camaligan,
Chairman of the Motion Picture Anti-film Piracy Council; Mr. Eduardo
Sazon, Executive Director of the Association of Video Distributors of
the Philippines; and Atty. Redentor Buban, Deputy Chief of Party of the
Rule of Law Effectiveness, we launched the exhibit.
Mr. Camaligan and OMB Chairman Edu Manzano had actually had a series of
coordination meetings and conferences at my office, leading to joint
cooperative agreements to fight film piracy and protect the local film
industry. Previous meetings threshed out common concerns on access to
theater premises and raids on suspected illegal replicating operations.
Mr. Manzano led us through the photo gallery, featuring among others the
accomplishments of the agency as well as still photos and videos of
raids and closures of violating retailers. There were photos related to
intellectual property rights. In sum, the photo gallery was aimed to
draw visitors away from piracy to patronize the originals.
The OMB regularly conducts CD plant inspections and audit, and is
efficient at tracking violators. Under its present leadership, the OMB
had conducted 932 inspections, seized more than one million pieces of
pirated optical discs, in the year 2006 alone.
On the one hand, the Optical Media Board has got its engine gunning at
full throttle to run after the pirates. The public should be warned that
they could be fined and jailed, if caught with pirated video, but they
can greatly help by simply not buying and not patronizing such pirated
products. |
