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UPSTREAM has taken the fight against movie piracy a notch higher in 2021 as the Optical Media Board (OMB) filed charges against at least 15 individuals who were allegedly engaged in pirating entry movies of the 46th Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF).

The newest video-on-demand platform has been working closely together with the OMB in the identification, charging, and possible conviction of the alleged culprits.

The joint investigation showed that the suspects have been offering pirated MMFF 2020 movies online for a mere P10.

For the right to watch the official entries, UPSTREAM charges P250 per movie.

If found guilty of violating Republic Act 9239 or the Intellectual Property Code, these individuals could face up to six years imprisonment, as well as payment of fines for administrative charges.

UPSTREAM said the movie producers have been losing millions and millions of pesos due to the unscrupulous activities of these individuals. This is unacceptable because every single time a movie piracy takes place, the jobs of those in the movie industry gets threatened.

Despite this circumstance, UPSTREAM.ph executives, Dondon Monteverde and Erik Matti, are both very pleased with the outcome of the 46th Metro Manila Film Festival on their local streaming site.

In partnership with Globe Telecom and GMovies, UPSTREAM.ph was the sole authorized streaming site for the recently concluded annual film festival.

This was the first time that MMFF entries were shown in digital format due to the global effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"With the cinemas closed, we've discovered that there is an audience for local content in an online viewing platform," said Direk Erik, managing creative partner of UPSTREAM.

He continued, "When we launched UPSTREAM from the last week of November to the earlier part of December 2020, we had significant amount of viewers for QCinema International but with MMFF, the number of audience grew bigger.

"Despite being a new platform, we were able to reach a lot of viewers, which was never done by any other online platform in the country.

"And with this year's MMFF going worldwide, we were also able to reach audiences from all over the globe. Topping the list of countries are United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and UAE.”

Following MMFF 2020, UPSTREAM continues to feature local projects with their upcoming releases next month. These include the second season of the well-loved and successful boys' love series, Regal Entertainment Inc.'s Ben x Jim, which stars Jerome Ponce and Teejay Marquez; Reality Entertainment's romantic-drama Runaway, which was shot entirely in New Zealand and topbilled by Maureen Wroblewitz and Kit Thompson; and another Erik Matti's masterpiece, A Girl and a Guy, featuring Vance Larena.

UPSTREAM will also host the live streaming of Senator Manny Pacquiao's much awaited fight in Dubai in April 2021.