PH creative economy could be on par with South Korea if not for online piracy

Without online piracy, the Philippine's creative economy can be on par with South Korea, according to a Viva Communications official.

“If not for piracy, we could have a bigger budget to create more content for our audience to enjoy, but we’re getting less than what we hope to get. If not for piracy, we could be a formidable creative economy on par with South Korea,” said Vicente “Vic” del Rosario Jr., chairman and CEO of Viva Communications.

Del Rosario made the statement as Viva Holdings, Inc. and its 37 subsidiaries signed the E-Commerce Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen protection of its content and retail products across digital platforms to fight piracy and counterfeiting online through the agreement.

At present, Senate Bill Nos. 2150 and 2385, both of which seeks to amend the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines to address online piracy, are still pending in the Upper Chamber.

Globe Telecommunications Inc. has been advocating the need to boost efforts against piracy, particularly passing legislation to institutionalize site blocking.

“This worrying trend highlights the urgency of strengthening enforcement against piracy, which can be done through amending the Intellectual Property Code to enable site blocking. We believe this will go a long way in curbing content piracy, which will in turn support the creative industry and protect our customers from the dangers posed by pirated content,” Yoly Crisanto, Globe’s Chief Sustainability and Corporate Communications Officer, earlier said.

A group, earlier, also expressed concern over the Senate's delay in passing the anti-online piracy bill, emphasizing that the lack of legal safeguards for intellectual property continues to damage the creative industries, as piracy remains widespread.—AOL, GMA Integrated News