Implement Creatives Industry Law as envisioned, crack down harder on piracy
August 26, 2022CitizenWatch Philippines lauds the lapsing into law of Republic Act 11904 or the Philippine Creatives Industry Act.
Finally, we have a law that institutes government support for the creatives industry. Our artists and workers in the creatives sector have been needing this for a long time because of the many factors that undermine their work, cause them to feel undervalued and even exploited, and limit their potential.
In the long run, this will also be good for consumers who will have a greater array of original, quality, and home-grown content.
The council that will oversee the implementation of the law has been placed under the DTI for a specific reason – to ensure that Filipinos’ creative spirit, aside from being encouraged, will also translate to a level of competitiveness that will allow Filipinos to develop entire industries instead of just being hired here and there by bigger international outfits.
The next question is whether our government would be able to implement the law so it achieves its objectives of building a globally competitive creatives industry. Even the implementation of RA 11904 would not be enough to protect creatives practitioners without the immediate amendment of the Intellectual Property Code to enable the purging of online piracy websites.
This is why we urge our lawmakers to swiftly pass House Bill 0799 that increases the powers of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines to implement rolling site blocking. This is so it could efficiently go after online pirates who violate intellectual property and threaten the viability of the industry.
Aside from the toll on original content creators, online piracy elevates the risk of malware infection and compromises data privacy, is linked to many websites containing advertisements that promote pornography and exposes the youth to gambling.
We need to act with urgency and stop rampant online piracy. It is threatening the collapse of the creatives industry.